The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Saturday banned Kenya’s celebrated assistant referee Aden Marwa from all football activities for life.
The decision was made on Saturday by the CAF Disciplinary board over cases of the referees named in media.
Of the 22 match officials who have been disciplined by CAF following a Disciplinary Board meeting on Saturday, Marwa has been handed the biggest penalty of a life time ban from any CAF activity while the rest, mostly from West Africa have been handed bans of between two to 10 years.
“The following decisions were taken by the CAF Disciplinary board regarding the referees involved, Mr. Marwa Range, assistant referee (Kenya); life ban from all CAF related football activities,” read the statement.
Marwa was as a result struck off the 63 assistant referees’ list for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Marwa, one of Kenya’s leading football referees, lost the chance of officiating at the ongoing 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia over allegations of bribery.
Marwa was filmed in a BBC investigative piece by Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas receiving a $600 (Sh60,000) bribe on June 6 this year. Anas posed as a Ghanaian football official when he approached Marwa at the 2018 Africa Nations Championship in Morocco.
Marwa’s World Cup duty from which he resigned would have seen him come back home from Russia with a handsome pay-cheque of slightly over Sh2.5mn.
The Kenyan was also in FIFA’s official list for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil but was not given any game to officiate.
Marwa’s ban comes barely a year after his compatriot, Davies Omweno, was banned for three months by CAF for ‘poor performance’.
Jallow Ebrima, a Gambian assistant referee and Togolese referees Yanissou Bobeou have both been suspended for 10 years, something that raises concern on Marwa’s case as all were more or less snared in the same trap.
CAF did not disclose much about their findings other than communicating the disciplinary measures taken on the match officials caught in the web of the expose.
Ivory Coast match officials BI Valere Gouho Marius Tan and Coulibaly Abou have been handed the least disciplinary measure, each being suspended for two years.
Eleven other officials, 10 Ghanaian and one Liberian have been suspended pending investigations and are expected to appear before the disciplinary board on August 5.
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