… August 2024 now expiry date
The life ban imposed on former Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia has been reduced to five years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), while a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs ($54,000) was overturned “as inappropriate and excessive”.
The 53-year-old former Super Eagles star was initially sanctioned on August 2019 by FIFA for agreeing to “receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches but he appealed against the ban by the football’s governing body, denying the charges.
But CAS in its decision yesterday said a life ban for Siasia was “disproportionate” for a passive offense that did not fetch him any money.
In a statement released by CAS, the decision to reduce the life ban to five years followed the appeal filed by Siasia over the decision of FIFA on April 11 to ban the coach for life over his involvement in bribery for fixing a match in 2010.
The CAS Panel said: “The Panel determined the imposition of a life ban to be disproportionate for a first offence that was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholder and that a five-year ban would still achieve the envisaged aim of punishing the infringement committed by Mr. Siasia.
“The Panel acknowledged the need for sanctions to be sufficiently high enough to eradicate bribery and especially match-fixing in football. However, the Panel considered the particular circumstances of this matter that it would be inappropriate and excessive to impose financial sanction in addition to the five-year ban, since the ban sanction already incorporated financial punishment in eliminating football as a source of revenue for Mr. Siasia, and considering that Mr. Siasia had not obtained any gain or pecuniary benefit from his unethical behaviour,” the statement stated.
With this development, Siasia’s ban expires in August 2024.