Agency Report

Kenya on Saturday announced the provisional suspension of five top football league referees over allegations of match-fixing and the manipulation of national league results.

Two of the suspended referees, Raymond Onyango and Isaac Memusi, were dropped from the list of FIFA referees at the start of this season after failing match fitness tests.

Football Kenya Federation said the decision was taken to safeguard the integrity of the sport, which came under the spotlight after four players were banned — one of them for life — by FIFA in February 2020 for taking part in “an international conspiracy to fix league matches”.

“The federation’s Integrity Department, with the assistance of FIFA, has initiated preliminary investigations against the said individuals with a view of establishing their involvement, if any, in the said match manipulation practices,” FKF general secretary Barry Otieno said in a statement.

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In May, FIFA announced the expulsion of top Kenyan football club Zoo Kericho from this season’s Premier League after being found guilty of match-fixing.

Otieno said the federation remains confident about the integrity of the Premier League.

The federation has, with the assistance of FIFA, “established and consistently continues to update its match manipulation detection platform, with a view of protecting and safeguarding the integrity of its competitions, against global match-fixers.”

AFP