FIFA says it will investigate match fixing involving the Zimbabwe national team as part of a world-wide probe that will look into over 300 matches in three continents.
An internal probe by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) named over a dozen players including stars such as Method Mwanjali, Nyasha Mushekwi, Edmore Sibanda, Washington Arubi and Daniel Vheremu for taking bungs to make sure the Warriors lost on hastily-organised Asian tours.
Former ZIFA CEO Henrietta Rushwaya lost her job over the affair, along with Harry Taruva, a former marketing officer. ZIFA programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana, who sneaked a weakened national team out of the country on December 29, 2009, has been suspended.
But despite FIFA’s insistence for sanctions to be taken against players, ZIFA have yet to take action, insisting that they have widened their probe and only after the second part of the investigation is concluded will they take action.
Now FIFA says it is taking a direct interest in the match fixing. Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported on Friday that FIFA suspects match officials were paid as little as US$10,000 to help engineer specific results in international friendly matches and European club games, netting fixers hundreds of millions of dollars on Asian betting markets.
"The threat from match-fixing to the integrity of the global game is significant," Chris Eaton, FIFA’s head of security said.
"Interviews with those involved have told us that fixers can spend upwards of US$300,000 to stage a friendly international and they do that with the expectation of a significant profit margin," the former Interpol official added.
Eaton told the Telegraph he believed fixers had made "tens of millions of dollars" in profit.
Employees from at least six different national football associations, including ZIFA, are under suspicion of assisting the criminal network, which is thought to work out of Singapore and Malaysia.
FIFA fear the upcoming under-17 and under-20 World Championships are at risk.
"We have admissions from those we are focusing on that they have been planning to target younger players at the under-17 and under-20 level," Eaton told the newspaper.
"That is enough to make me concerned that we need to put preventative measures in place," he added.
Matches under suspicion include club games in Germany and Finland, Europa League fixtures and friendly internationals involving Kuwait, Jordan, Bolivia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Malaysia and Zimbabwe.
A friendly game between Bahrain and Togo came to the world's attention after the African country denied sending a team, and were instead represented by amateurs who struggled to last the full game. During the match, which is under investigation, Bahrain scored eight goals, five of which were ruled out, resulting in a 3-0 scoreline.