FIFA reveals how J.O Lamptey aided betting companies during World Cup qualifier

desmond frimpong

January 15, 2018 12:26 PM

This development brought a lot of controversies in the sports world and finally FIFA has spoken.

FIFA has issued a statement to back CAS decision to ban Ghanaian referee, Joseph Odartei Lamptey for engaging in activities found to have influenced the result of a 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifier between South Africa and Senegal on 12 November 2016.

The statement comes months after FIFA's disciplinary committee judicial board banned the Ghanaian official for life for his actions

"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".

desmond frimpong