By David Gold
October 3 – The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) is to protest to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after reports emerged alleging that Liberia was close to agreeing to lose the crucial African Nations Cup qualifier with Mali this weekend.
Mali currently lead Group A, from which only the group winners are guaranteed qualification for the 2012 finals, being held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
They face Liberia this weekend, with Zimbabwe one point behind and playing an equally important game with Cape Verde, who could also qualify for the finals with three points.
Liberia, on the other hand, have just four points and cannot qualify, and reports emerged in the country’s Daily Observer sports newspaper in the country that a delegation from Mali had offered deals to a local official.
The paper also quoted a spokesman from the Concerned Citizens for the Promotion and Development of Football who claimed to have obtained evidence that Liberia was on the verge of accepting bribes to lose the match.
“A victory for Mali will qualify her with 12 points, while Liberia remains the underdog with 4 points and received an undisclosed amount of money,” said the group’s representative.
“We therefore, want to use this medium to advise the…leadership not to sell our birthright.”
The Daily Observer reported: “the Malian delegation was in the country for two weeks under the guise of visiting their Muslim counterparts on the holding of a successful Ramadan, which ended on Tuesday, August 30, 2011.
“They said the group topper, Mali…desperately needs a win against Liberia to grab the lone seat.”
In response to the allegations, ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze (pictured far right with Sepp Blatter and ZIFA President Cuthbert Dube), 03-10-11 told The Zimbabwean, “We can’t take those reports lightly.
“Investigations have to be carried out and as ZIFA we will lodge a complaint with CAF over these match fixing allegations.
“There are efforts to ensure that Zimbabwe does not qualify.”
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734851143labto1734851143ofdlr1734851143owedi1734851143sni@d1734851143log.d1734851143ivad1734851143
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