Saudi World Cup referee gets life ban for match-fixing attempt

Thursday, 17 May 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Saudi Arabia has banned referee Fahad Al Mirdasi from football for life for a match-fixing attempt, weeks before he was due to fly to Russia to officiate at the World Cup, the country’s football federation (SAFF) said in a statement late on Tuesday (15 May).

Al Mirdasi had confessed to offering to fix Saturday’s King’s Cup final on behalf of the Al-Ittihad club, the SAFF said. It added that it had requested FIFA hand him a lifetime global ban as well as removing him from the World Cup list.

The 32-year-old referee made the approach to Al-Ittihad Chief Hamad Al-Senaie, who immediately handed over the WhatsApp messages to SAFF officials who in turn alerted the relevant government authorities, SAFF said. Al Mirdasi was taken into police custody where he confessed to soliciting the corrupt payment, the statement from the SAFF Ethics Committee added.