Reports of corruption in football are almost never too far behind tournaments of repute. It has bedevilled almost every continental Association as well as regional and national ones. Even FIFA has had its fair share over the years.
News from Kenya report that a senior Kenyan referee has been captured on camera receiving a Sh60,000 bribe in order to influence the outcome of an international football match.
And as a result of this revelation contained in an expose aired by the BBC on Wednesday, Aden Range Marwa has been struck off the list of match officials for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
He was among the 63 assistant referees set to officiate at next month’s showpiece.
The expose was produced by controversial Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and exposes Marwa alongside dozens of other match officials allegedly getting the cash.
The footage shows Marwa, a mathematics teacher from Kotombo Secondary School in Migori County, receiving the cash at a background that resembles his hotel room. His accuser says it was shot during the 2018 Africa Nations Championship (Chan) tournament in Morocco.
Interestingly, the Kenyan match official is heard in this clip acknowledging the cash as a ‘gift’ and even seems all too keen to extend the friendship.
“You know, thank you for the gift but the most important is that friendship, getting to know each other,” says Marwa.
The 41-year old was unavailable for comment but Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa has promised to investigate the matter.
“We only learnt of the allegations through the media,” said Mwendwa.
“As such, we want to let due process take its course, it’s important to note that as a federation we are yet to receive any complaint in regard to the match official, whether written, verbal or implied.”
“That notwithstanding is to say that FKF has a zero tolerance on corruption but also strongly believes in justice and fairness for all that is why we will be meeting with the match official in the coming days to hear his side of the story before an official position on the matter is arrived at, this even as we await any investigation on the same by the world football governing body FIFA.”
Marwa was on his seventh year serving as a FIFA referee.
He also made the final list for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil but was not given any match to officiate.
He officiated as an assistant referee at the 2016 Club World Cup in Japan.
He was named as a CAF assistant referee in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and featured in a similar capacity in the 2012, 2013 and 2015 Africa Cup of Nations as well as at Chan (African Nations Championship) competitions, Under-17 World Cup, Caf Under-23 Championship and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Another report from Ghana states that a senior Ghanaian official was caught on tape receiving bribe so as to influence player selection in the national team.
In a revelation that has stunned many, Eddie Doku, Greater Accra Regional Football Association Chairman, is seen in a video-pocketing a huge bundle of cash as a bribe to influence game time for a player in the Black Stars Team ‘B’ during the WAFU Zone ‘B’ tournament.
Doku was filmed in part of an investigative piece put out by investigative reporter, Anas, Aremeyaw, titled ‘Number 12’ which is set to be aired in Accra on Wednesday.
Ghana, who face Kenya in Nairobi in September in a crunch 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, is one of the continent’s strongest football teams.
Doku, who was the chairman of the team’s management committee, took an unspecified amount of money to ensure Hearts of Oak winger Patrick Razak got more minutes on the pitch for the team.
Razak became one of the tournament’s best performers, but it has now been revealed that Doku benefited financially from the player’s participation in the matches.
In the tape, Doku is seen taking money from the undercover reporter from ‘Tiger Eye’. He takes the money, unwraps it and splits it and stashes two bundles into his left and right jacket pockets with a third bundle going into the right pocket of his trousers.
Then in what is a bizarre if not hilarious final act, he crumbles the empty paper wrappings in which the money was delivered and hands it over to the undercover reporter.
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