Tighten the screws on match-fixers
Police in Kasarani, Nairobi are holding three match fixing suspects, Russian Akhiad Kubiev, Ugandan Bernard Navendi and Kenyan Martin Munga Mutua, after arresting them on March 10, 2023.
What you need to know:
- It is not yet a lost battle; it is still a ground that needs a lot of energy and adjustment to cut out the vice.
- If we fail in doing something more drastic to it then we shall be confined to thanking the police and unnamed players and keeping mum until “investigations are completed”.
The arrest of two foreigners and a Kenyan suspected to be involved in manipulating matches came as no surprise to us.
We had feared that such people can never be arrested in Kenya! We have raised concern about the damaging vice in this column many times but it seems the perpetrators are very well-heeled, or they are organised beyond our puny individual efforts to get them nailed.
The suspected match-fixers were arrested by the police with the help of some players in the Football Kenya Federation Premier League.
The demeaning drama prompted the federation to issue a carefully worded communique and assured Kenyans of the integrity of the league.
The federation also thanked the police and the players and reiterated that it shall fight match-fixing at all cost and will communicate on the matter once investigations are completed.
That tepid response is what we expected from the great FKF! We cannot have players going for six months with no salary or allowances and think they shall avoid being bribed!
We have club CEOs whose main motivation to own or run a club is pegged on how much they can sell matches to the highest bidder! We have players who have lost all sense of shame and caution and only a wad of dirty notes gives them the mood.
To say the truth, this society is the best environment for the match-fixers; it is the most consistent culture solution for the bacteria of bribing and throwing away matches in exchange for hard cash;it is inherently suited to all manner of shady deals and our football must align itself to it.
We shall shout ourselves hoarse; we shall wait to thank anybody who raises a finger to try and bring to book the perpetrators of this illegality and then shut up as we wait for investigations to be concluded.
Where corporate sponsorship of teams is not forthcoming and the whole nation is addicted to gambling and easy cash it is only the betting firms that shall rule! In the land of the blind, the one-eyed fellow is the king!
Those players that alerted the authorities about the match-fixers have done something very rare and they might soon suffer for being honest in this jungle; this sty only respects the moneyed and an honest beggar is really revolting to us.
It is not yet a lost battle; it is still a ground that needs a lot of energy and adjustment to cut out the vice.
If we fail in doing something more drastic to it then we shall be confined to thanking the police and unnamed players and keeping mum until “investigations are completed”.
We need to get even more serious with this issue or else we shall kill our sports!
