By Andrew Warshaw
March 19 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has personally intervened to stop Sierra Leone authorities trying to sweep allegations of match-fixing under the carpet.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the Sierra Leone Ministry of Sport had lifted the suspensions of 15 players and officials alleged to have been caught up in match manipulation.
They included five players, notably ex-Sierra Leone captain Ibrahim Kargbo, who were being specifically investigated by the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) run by Isha Johansen (pictured), one of the few female administrators in world football. The allegations relate to a World Cup qualifier against South Africa in 2008 which ended goalless.
The sports ministry said it lifted the suspensions to avoid any conflict at the forthcoming SLFA congress but Blatter has written directly to Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma calling on him to support the match-fixing probe being undertaken by Johansen’s federation.
The letter, seen by Insideforldfootball, urges Koroma to back the internal committee conducting the investigation and to “support your country’s football association in its fight against this ill.”
Koroma has now officially approved the three-man committee, which it is understood will be aided by two FIFA executives, giving the green light for the inquiry to proceed.
“It was not for the minister of sport to lift the ban,” said Johansen, one of only two female football federation presidents who for months has been trying to fight off intimidation from an unofficial group of campaigners endeavouring to unseat her.
“It’s unprofessional, unethical and unpatriotic. This is a football matter. We are going ahead with our probe which is long overdue. It was because of the Ebola situation in our country that we had to postpone it.”
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