It was a match fixing scandal that happened in 2009 in Asia and there were many Zimbabwean players and officials who were since being investigated by Football Association. Now a final verdict has been pronounced by Zimbabwean Football Association (ZIFA) and found many accused as responsible for that fixing; hence they all are banned for life. Prominent names among them are former player Sunday Marimo Chidzambwa who is now a national soccer coach of Zimbabwe along with Henrietta Rushwaya, its ex-chief executive officer. Judgment was passed on yesterday by the supreme soccer governing body of Zimbabwe. ZIFA’s current chief executive officer Cuthbert Dube said, “We say zero tolerance to match-fixing and illegal betting. The dark episode should now be consigned to history’s dump site and it is incumbent upon the entire family of football to jealously safeguard the beautiful game from its enemies.”
Notably, the said investigation was independent and headed by a retired judge Ahmed Ebrahim. For the time being, said ban covers only Zimbabwean domicile but if it is approved by FIFA for worldwide applicability, these players/officials can see a miserable demise of their soccer careers. The matches which are supposed to be fixed are played between 2007 and 2009 in a friendly tour of Zimbabwean national soccer team to Asia, when an organized betting syndicate claimed to have hired these players to lose on a particular pay line or offering another advantage to this syndicate. The independent investigation report has been submitted to ZIFA on Tuesday itself containing around 93 players and officials with their fate. ZIFA reviewed the report for full two days and passed its judgment on Friday.
Besides, there were also some players who have been acquitted by ZIFA for the time being as there were no concrete evidences are found against them. This is arguably the biggest list of banned players/officials in soccer community. Despite the final verdict, said players and official are planning to file an appeal against said ban citing they are innocent and whatever happened was not because of any of them. On the other side, ZIFA is preparing its second list of players who have also been banned but for ten years; this list will be declared next week, until then everyone has kept his figures crossed. Broadly speaking, match fixing is growing like a cancer; hence this kind of stiff action is necessary if soccer is to be made a proudest game of all time.