CAS verdict on referee Lamptey victory against match manipulation - FIFA

FIFA, the world football governing body says the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to uphold a lifetime ban handed Ghanaian match official Joseph Odartei Lamptey underlines its commitment to protecting the integrity of football and its zero-tolerance policy on match manipulation.

It will be recalled that FIFA’s judicial bodies had banned Mr Lamptey for life for breaching article 69 paragraph 1 (unlawfully influencing match results) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ qualifying match between South Africa and Senegal on 12 November 2016.

However, Lamptey maintained his innocence and first appealed the verdict to the FIFA Appeals Committee and later at CAS.

Among the reliefs sought by the Ghanaian referee at CAS included an annulling of the lifetime ban, a reduction of the sanction if he was found in violation of Article 69 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and a request for 10,000 GHF to help the payment of his legal fees and costs.

His appeals to both Swiss-based bodies were dismissed as the decision to ban him for life was upheld last year.

FIFA yesterday reacted to the CAS verdict in a statement saying it concluded that Mr Lamptey had intentionally taken two wrong decisions with the sole purpose of enabling a specific number of goals to be scored that would make pertinent bets successful.

"CAS concluded that there was an obvious link between these intentionally wrong decisions and a deviation from an expected betting pattern, and consequently found Mr Lamptey guilty of having unlawfully influenced the result of the match," the statement said.

"This CAS decision underlines FIFA’s commitment to protecting the integrity of football and its zero-tolerance policy on match manipulation, while also highlighting the effectiveness of its current agreement with Sportradar that uses their Fraud Detection System, which played an important role in this case".