THE Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) says it is ready to hand-over its dossier on match fixing to FIFA as officials warned that players named in the scandal could face lengthy bans.

“We sympathise with our players who co-operated with the Investigating Committee and we realise they were used as pawns by greedy and unpatriotic officials who were part of a larger syndicate now being investigated by FIFA,” said ZIFA boss Cuthbert Dube.

“However, FIFA are the ultimate custodians of football and they will guide us using the FIFA Disciplinary Code on the appropriate sanctions to be taken on players found guilty.”

ZIFA Vice President Ndumiso Gumede led two investigations into claims that former ZIFA CEO Henrietta Rushwaya facilitated close to a dozen games in Asia, organised by betting syndicates, at which Zimbabwe players and coaching staff were asked to lose by pre-agreed scores.

Gumede’s first report damned Rushwaya, along with some ZIFA executives, while placing the careers of more than two dozen of some of Zimbabwe’s top football stars in doubt.

The probe team says it has completed a second report but was hamstrung by finances to allow investigators to travel to Asia to tie up their investigations. But FIFA’s decision to send its chief of security to Malaysia to look into matches involving Zimbabwe and the host country has prompted ZIFA executives to seek to share notes with Chris Eaton.

"There is a possibility that we may exchange notes with FIFA now that they are moving into Malaysia,” Gumede said. "Our constraints were that we did not have funds but it would be prudent for us, funds permitting, to go to Malaysia or Singapore because there are no records at ZIFA or the Sports Commission on how those trips came about.

"There is nothing to show how the Warriors were invited and whether it was done at association to association level or whether all the matches were arranged by agents and at what cost. But we would still want to know how the associations then came in and this is what we need to find out from Malaysia or Singapore.”

Gumede’s probe team looked into Monomotapa trip to Malaysia in 2009 where they posed as the Zimbabwe national team with Rushwaya’s tacit approval, Monomotapa’s CAF Champions League matches against TP Mazembe and Etoile du Sahel, Zimbabwe’s participation in the 2007 Merdeka Cup in Malaysia and further matches including Selangor (Malaysian club side) vs Zimbabwe, Oman vs Zimbabwe, Bahrain vs Zimbabwe, Yemen vs Zimbabwe, Bulgaria vs Zimbabwe, Thailand vs Zimbabwe, Syria vs Zimbabwe, Yemen vs Zimbabwe, China vs Zimbabwe and the 2009 CECAFA tournament in Kenya.

Washington Arubi, Guthrie Zhokinyi and David Kutyauripo are among more than two dozen players, coaches and officials implicated in the scandal.

Some of the stars facing an uncertain future include Nyasha Mushekwi, Daniel Zokoto, Daniel Veremu, Cuthbert Malajila, Method Mwanjali, Benjamin Marere, Mthulisi Maphosa, Phillip Marufu, Willard Manyatera and Zephaniah Ngodzo.