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The Uganda Football Federation (FUFA) has taken decisive action against a match-fixing syndicate, provisional suspending 13 individuals. These include 10 referees, a player, and two administrators. This follows the uncovering of a South African-based match-fixing syndicate, thanks to collaboration with FIFA.
The investigation, which began in December, focused on suspicious activities in seven matches across the second divisions. These games include men’s and women’s fixtures between October and December of the previous year, BBC said.
FUFA’s investigatory chamber, led by Charles Twine, uncovered “incontrovertible” evidence linking the banned individuals to the match-fixing syndicate. Twine described the problem as “so damaging,” highlighting its association with corruption, money laundering, and organized crime.
“We received a lot of information from intelligence, collaborators and different platforms that there was a vice of match-fixing in Uganda”, Charles Twine, a member of FUFA’s investigatory chamber, said on Tuesday. “I can comfortably call it a criminal syndicate because match-fixing is associated with so many crimes – crimes of corruption, money laundering and, sometimes, organized crime,” he added.
Hilfiger Mutyaba, an ex-convict with a history of financial crimes, led the syndicate. He allegedly infiltrated Ugandan soccer by recruiting referees, players, and club officials to manipulate match outcomes. Mutyaba and his associates placed substantial bets on these fixed matches, often in local and international betting markets.
How did FIFA help in revealing issue?
Systems put in place with FIFA allowed the association to identify the manipulation, according to Denis Lukambi, FUFA’s legal manager.
“We received an alert that someone has placed abnormal money on a particular game. 99% of this process is about betting – with match-fixers or mafias placing money either in local [Ugandan] betting houses or,…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/south-african-match-fixing-ring-infiltrates-uganda-13-suspended/
Author : Martina Alcheva
Publish date : 2024-06-21 19:16:49
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