Kenyan footballer handed 10-year ban over match fixing

What you need to know:

  • Fifa established a prima facie case against defender George Owino Audi for potentially committing breaches of the world football governing body’s Code of Ethics between June 2009 and 2011.
  • According to the Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) report released in September 2018, Owino, through 177 email communications exchanged between him and high-profile international match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, conspired to manipulate and influence the result of international matches involving Kenya.

Kenyan international George Awino Audi has been handed a 10-year ban by Fifa after he was found guilty of match-fixing.

According to statement from the global football body on Wednesday, the Ex- Harambee Stars defender will also pay a fine of CHF 15,000 (Sh1.5million).

"Moreover, the Kenyan player Mr Geroge Owino Audi has been banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at both national and international level (administrative, sports or any other) for a period of ten (10) years. In addition, a fine in the amount of CHF 15,000 has been imposed upon him," read part of the statement.

World football governing body Fifa launched investigations against Owino, who is said to have been paid millions of shillings to throw away the Kenya national team’s matches.

Fifa established a prima facie case against defender George Owino Audi for potentially committing breaches of the world football governing body’s Code of Ethics between June 2009 and 2011.

According to the Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) report released in September 2018, Owino, through 177 email communications exchanged between him and high-profile international match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, conspired to manipulate and influence the result of international matches involving Kenya.

Perumal thus used Owino to identify several Harambee Stars players for the task in which unspecified amount of money exchanged money between 2009 and 2011.

To sweeten the deal, Perujmal - who has already been sentenced to prison in Finland and Hungary over these offences - offered Owino lucrative opportunities to play in Australia.

Fifa also announced that nine other footballers from Benin, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Trinidad and Tobago had been banned for life.