THIRTEEN players and officials have been banned for life from football and 80 others have been suspended after being found guilty of match fixing, the Zimbabwe Football Association said Tuesday.
No names were released, but ZIFA confirmed that eight players had been exonerated by a committee led by retired High Court judge Ahmed Ibrahim which investigated allegations national team players and officials took cash payments from Asian betting syndicates between 2007 and 2009 to lose matches.
In a statement after he handed over his findings to the ZIFA board, Justice Ibrahim said: "My committee has just completed a task which it embarked on about 11 months ago. It has been a tortuous, stressful period in our lives and we have been operating with virtually no resources.
"We have been maligned and some of our members have been libelled and received virtually no co-operation in securing documentation to effectively carry out our task."
It has been recommended that those found guilty should receive hefty punishments with the most severe being a ban for life from all football activities.
The committee, headed by Retired Justice Ahmed Ibrahim, completed its findings a few days ago after 11 months of investigations, but releasing the report to the football mother body was held up to avoid any distractions to the Warriors' preparations for the AFCON qualifier against Angola.
Retired Justice Ibrahim said of the remaining lot implicated, 8 were absolved of any wrongdoing, while over 50 were found guilty and will pay a heavy price for their transgressions.
It has, however, been confirmed that 13 of those implicated have been handed a life ban from all football activities with seven facing 10-year bans, while 37 have been given five-year bans and 25 have also been given two year bans.
Two have been handed two-year suspended bans, while six face one-year bans. Two face one-year suspended bans and one player has been given a six-month ban. Eight of those fingered in the scandal have been cleared of the match-fixing charges.
By sbue
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