Thirteen individuals have been slapped with bans by the Uganda Football Federation (FUFA) following a match-fixing scandal.
These include a footballer, 10 referees and two administrators who were found to have influenced matches in the lower divisions of the country’s men’s and women’s football.
According to a report by BBC Sport, FUFA successfully uncovered a South African-based match-fixing syndicate with the help of FIFA.
A member of FUFA’s investigatory chamber, Charles Twine, said they discovered “incontrovertible” evidence against the match-fixers.
“I can comfortably call it a criminal syndicate because match-fixing is associated with so many crimes – crimes of corruption, money laundering and, sometimes, organised crime,” Twine said.
He explained that the match-fixing syndicate usually targets games in the lower tiers since they are not covered on television.
Uganda has been in the news over various match-fixing scandals in recent years, with FIFA banning five players from the Ugandan league last week.
The global football governing body also handed 10-year suspensions to two referees in the country’s top flight league.
FUFA’s legal manager Denis Lukambi, however, said systems have now been put in place to detect any manipulation of matches.
“We received an alert that someone has placed abnormal money on a particular game,” Lukambi said, as quoted by the BBC.
“99% of this process is about betting – with match-fixers or mafias placing money either in local [Ugandan] betting houses or, more especially, out of the country.”
Meanwhile, Uganda will co-host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), alongside Kenya and Tanzania.
Pulse
