Another (Failed) Match Fixing Attempt at the Africa Cup of Nations

January 27th, 2008 | by: Daryl | Comments Off

Uh oh. After Benin coach Reinhard Fabisch’s claim that he was approached by a mysterious would-be match-fixer prior to his team’s opener against Mali, Namibia revealed yesterday that they have also been approached.

The players were apparently offered $30,000 each by a betting syndicate to throw this coming Monday’s game against Guinea but reported the approach to John Muinjo, President of the Namibian Football Association, instead. Muinjo has passed the information on to CAF and there’s likely be some sort of investigation.

Seems the fixers thought Namibia’s players might be more open to throwing a game as they’ve already lost the first two and are eliminated from the Africa Cup of Nations already. Seems the fixers are underestimating the amount of pride the players have in their team and their determination to do as well as possible at the tournament. Also seems stupid offering to pay teams to lose when they’ve been losing anyway. But I say let them keep offering money and let the teams keep reporting them. That way we’ll hopefully catch as many match-fixers as possible.