Siasia

World football body FIFA, on Friday slammed a life ban on former Super Eagles​ coach, Samson Siasia, for agreeing to ‘the manipulation of matches.’

Siasia is aslo to pay a $50,000 fine to the world football body.

The sanction stems from an ongoing ‘large-scale investigation’ FIFA is conducting into the behaviour of Wilson Raj Perumal, a convicted match-fixer from Singapore.

The time period when the infraction is committed is however not clear.

Siasia coached Nigeria’s senior national team between 2010 and 2011and for a spell in 2016. He also at various times served as coach of the country’s Under-20 and Under-23 sides.

He scored 16 goals in over 50 appearances and won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria.

FIFA, in a statement, found Siasia ‘guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches.’

The former international who’s mother is still being held by her abductors in Bayelsa state, is the third African to be banned by FIFA for his links to Perumal.

Earlier in July, former Sierra Leone FA official, Abu Bakarr Kabba, was banned for five years, while former Botswana FA official, Mooketsi Kgotlele, was suspended for life.