By Andrew Warshaw
October 22 – The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has banned for life 15 players and officials involved in the country’s long-running match-fixing scandal.
They include former ZIFA chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya (pictured top) and coach Sunday Chidzambwa (pictured below), who took the Warriors to the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 2004.
A further 16 players have been cleared, while the fate of 70 others has yet to be decided.
“Today will go down as a sad, depressing day in the annals of history of the game in Zimbabwe,” said Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, a former Supreme Court judge who was chairman of the independent panel investigating the case.
Those banned were accused of accepting money from a betting syndicate to throw matches between 2007 and 2009.
During that time Zimbabwe lost to Jordan 2-0, to Thailand 3-0 and to Syria 6-0 in Malaysia in tours arranged by Rushwaya.
FIFA has indicated that the bans will take worldwide effect and current ZIFA President Cuthbert Dube said no stone would be left unturned to clean up the game.
“We will not step down until we clean up football,” he said.
Despite ZIFA’s assertion that the bans would take effect immediately and pending FIFA’s endorsement, Thomas Sweswe — one of those sanctioned — turned out for his South African club Bidvest Wits on Friday (October 19) night, while on Saturday (October 20) Chidzambwa — who coaches South African side Black Leopards — was directing operations from the bench during his team’s 2-0 loss to Orlando Pirates.
In a statement FIFA said: “FIFA will be in contact with the ZIFA in order to be informed of the exact status of the disciplinary proceedings, receive the decisions and take the appropriate measures as soon as possible.”
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