Harare, March 9 (IANS) Zimbabwe’s football governing body board member Edzai Kasinauyo has been suspended on allegations of trying to manipulate results of the national team’s 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers against Swaziland slated for the end of this month.
The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has alleged that Kasinauyo had been in contact with a syndicate in Asia in a bid to fix the result of that match so that Zimbabwe loses the encounter, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
The two teams are tied on four points at the top in Group L and both will be going all out for a win to enhance their chances of making it to the final.
“The suspension has been occasioned by allegations of match-fixing ahead of the 2017 Orange Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match between Zimbabwe and Swaziland. Kasinauyo has been fingered in the match-fixing scam and investigations are going on,” ZIFA said in a statement on Tuesday.
Kasinauyo is the ZIFA executive committee member responsible for technical affairs.
This is not the first time that match-fixing allegations emerged in Zimbabwe as in 2012 another match-fixing scandal was exposed which saw more than 80 players and officials being implicated.
Some of the players and officials admitted to throwing matches but flaws in handling of the case by ZIFA led to collapse of investigations.