June 26 – FIFA has imposed a worldwide ban on two Lebanese assistant referees who were jailed in Singapore this month for accepting sexual favours to fix a match.
Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb had been provisionally banned by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) pending a disciplinary hearing and now FIFA has extended the suspension worldwide.
The two were jailed for three months each on June 10, backdated to April 4, when they were detained by police in Singapore but were released within hours after a court into account time already served while awaiting their sentences. The match referee, Ali Sabbagh, was jailed for six months the following day.
The three Lebanese had been scheduled to officiate an Asian Football Federation match on April 3 between Singapore’s Tampines Rovers and India’s East Bengal in April but were replaced just hours before kickoff by the AFC.
Eid and Taleb were charged with “corruptly receiving gratification in the form of free sexual service”, arranged by Singaporean businessman Eric Ding Si Yang.
The case has heaped even more unwanted spotlight on Lebanon whose authorities punished 24 players in February for allegedly helping rig international and regional fixtures.
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