A South Africa referee Victor Gomes has reported an attempt to bribe him to fix the outcome of a match in Nigeria to the Confederation of African Football, CAF.
Gomes said that he rejected a $30,000 (about N10.8 million) bribe to fix the CAF Confederation Cup match between Nigeria’s Plateau United and Algeria’s USM Alger.
Gomes was in Lagos along with his assistants Johannes Moshidi and Athenkosi Ndongeni‚ and regular South African Premier Soccer League referee, Thando Ndzandzeka‚ who acted as the fourth official.
Plateau United won the first leg second round fixture played in Lagos 2-1 but CAF is now investigating the claims of referee Gomes.
Similarly, The Zimbabwe Football Association said Tuesday that one of its referees reported being offered a bribe of $10,000 to fix a CAF Confederation Cup game in Equatorial Guinea.
It’s the second time in two weeks that a match official has claimed to have been approached to fix in Africa’s second-biggest club tournament.
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Gladmore Mzambi, vice chairman of the Zimbabwe association’s referees committee, told The Associated Press that referee Norman Matemera reported being offered the bribe by representatives of Equatorial Guinea’s Deportivo Niefang club.
They wanted the ref to influence the second leg of their knockout tie against Ivory Coast’s Williamsville AC on April 18 so they could overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit.
Matemera reported that when he refused the bribe, he was then approached by the match commissioner, Togo’s Lawson Mahuwe, who also tried to bribe him on behalf of Deportivo Niefang.
Matemera reported the attempted bribery to the Confederation of African Football, which is investigating, Mzambi said. The $10,000 was offered to Matemera and his three assistants.
“We applaud what Matemera did. He has shown a high degree of integrity,” Mzambi said. “He did the right thing. He reported the matter to CAF whilst he was still in Equatorial Guinea.
“CAF are already looking into the matter.”
The alleged attempt by Deportivo Niafeng did not work, with the team going out of the competition on aggregate despite winning the game in question last week 2-1.
