FIFA discloses Sierra Leone match-fixing investigation date

October 19, 2018

By Sahr Morris  Jnr

Lawyer Jean-Samuel Leuba, head of FIFA/Sierra Leone match-fixing investigation team

World football governing body, FIFA, has revealed that the Sierra Leone Inquiry Group will conduct the prolong match-fixing investigation from 4^th  to 9^th  November 2018, with the government of Sierra Leone to appoint its new representative to the Task Force.

In February 2018, FIFA named a four-man investigation team to probe an alleged match-fixing. The match-fixing inquiry includes a World Cup qualifier between Sierra Leone and South Africa in 2008.

According to FIFA, Jean-Samuel Leuba, a lawyer, will head the said team and will be joined by Michael Emde, Peter Limacher and Paul Scotney, a former detective who has extensive experience in  investigating corruption in sport.

After a successful meeting last Wednesday at the home of FIFA in Zurich by the Government of Sierra Leone, which was led by the Vice-President, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Priscilla Schwartz, the Ambassador to Switzerland, Lansana Gberie, and the Deputy Ambassador to Switzerland, Samuel U. B. Saffa, several measures were agreed on and the match-fixing investigation was one of them.

“The Government of Sierra Leone committed to appoint its new representative to the Task Force for Sierra Leone, which also includes representatives from FIFA, CAF and the SLFA, and to ensure all the necessary support for the deployment of the Sierra Leone Inquiry Group to conduct the match-fixing investigation from 4 to 9 November 2018,” the FIFA statement reads.

Since 2014, eleven officials and four players were suspended by Sierra Leone’s FA pending investigation, with all having denied wrongdoing.