Ex-Nigeria international and former Super Eagles, Flying Eagles, and Dream Team coach, Samson Siasia has announced that he would unveil plans for the next phase of his career following the end of his five-year FIFA ban.
World football governing body FIFA initially banned Siasia for life and fined him $50,000 for agreeing to ‘the manipulation of matches’ for betting purposes.
According to FIFA, the ban of the Nigerian legend was a fallout of an extensive investigation into matches that Wilson Perumal attempted to fix.
However, Siasia denied the charges and appealed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, getting the punishment reduced to five years in 2021.
The court also cancelled the $50,000 fine imposed on Siasia by FIFA, while the ban was backdated to start on August 16, 2019.
In its judgement, CAS said it “determined the imposition of a life ban to be disproportionate 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 Mr. Siasia.”
Friday (today) August 16, 2024, makes it five years—from the backdated date of the ban by CAS—and when asked by our correspondent how enthusiastic he was ahead of the new phase, Siasia reserved his comments for another day after the ban.
“After the ban, we can talk,” the Olympic silver and bronze medal winning coach told PUNCH Sports Extra.
The ex-international has been rumoured to be in discussions to take over as the coach of Mighty Jets football club in Jos on August 21.
In a recent interview with Athlist, the 57-year-old recounted his ordeal when the charges were levelled against him.
“I spoke with someone who was trying to hire me as a coach in Australia. I didn’t know the guy was a matchfixer, but FIFA knew this guy. Why would they allow him to be around any FIFA tournament?
“So, when they found out through emails, our correspondence about how this guy would take me to Australia, I played in Australia, so I felt it would be nice to go back there.
“We talked about how much salaries, transfers, bonuses, and sign-on fees were, and that was all.
“When FIFA was looking for me, I didn’t even know. I am not affiliated with FIFA; their affiliation is with the NFF. So, they went to the NFF and told them not to let me know that they were investigating me. But if they didn’t tell me, how was I supposed to defend myself?
“Then we started to see how we could communicate with them to see how I could have a hearing. But they said the time had elapsed and I should go to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport).
“For me to do that, it took like two days. Finding a sports lawyer in this country is not easy. You can hardly find one. So, we struggled and managed. I can tell you that the boy we took to write the appeal brief for me to get that hearing is suing me up until today.”
As a player, Siasia was a member of the 1994 Eagles squad that won the country’s second AFCON title and also reached the round of 16 at the World Cup.
As a coach, he guided Nigeria to a second-place finish at the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands before winning silver in the men’s football event of the 2008 Olympics and bronze at the 2016 edition.
Credit: punchng.com
