The Court of Arbitration for Sport, (CAS), has reduced former Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia’s life ban from football to five years.
FIFA had in 2019 sanctioned the Nigerian for accepting to “receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches.” The 53-year-old had appealed the sanction, denying the charges leveled against him.
The Court yesterday said it determined the imposition of a life ban to be top-heavy for a first offence which was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholders, and that a five-year ban would still achieve the envisaged aim of punishing the infringement committed by Siasia.
CAS also overturned a fine of $5000 imposed on the former Nigerian striker by FIFA, backdating the life ban to begin from 16 August 2019.