FIFA backs lifetime ban of disgraced ref Lamptey

Cape Town - FIFA has released a statement reaffirming their stance on the lifetime ban handed down to referee Joseph Lamptey following a disputed penalty awarded to South Africa against Senegal in their 2018 Soccer World Cup qualifier.

The Ghanaian official awarded a penalty for a non-existent handball against Senegal defender Kalidou Koulibaly.

However, replays clearly showed the ball struck Koulibaly's knee and then dropped to the ground.

Subsequently, South Africa and Senegal were ordered to replay the match - which was 'won' 2-1 by Bafana Bafana.

However, in the replay it was the Lions of Teranga who triumphed 2-0 last November.

Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for this year's World Cup after finishing last in Group D while Senegal topped the group and will be one of five countries to represent the African continent in Russia.

The World Cup will start on Thursday, June 14.

The statement read

FIFA has taken note of the motivated arbitral award of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirming the lifetime ban imposed by FIFA’s Disciplinary and Appeal Committees on Ghanaian match official Joseph Odartei Lamptey.

FIFA’s judicial bodies had banned Mr Lamptey for life for breaching art. 69 par 1 (unlawfully influencing match results) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ qualifying match between South Africa and Senegal on 12 November 2016.

In its ruling, CAS concluded that Mr Lamptey had intentionally taken two wrong decisions with the sole purpose of enabling a specific number of goals to be scored that would make pertinent bets successful. CAS concluded that there was an obvious link between these intentionally wrong decisions and a deviation from an expected betting pattern, and consequently found Mr Lamptey guilty of having unlawfully influenced the result of the match.

This CAS decision underlines FIFA’s commitment to protecting the integrity of football and its zero-tolerance policy on match manipulation, while also highlighting the effectiveness of its current agreement with Sportradar that uses their Fraud Detection System, which played an important role in this case.