New Zimbabwe.com
4 October 2011
Sundowns boss Patrice Motsepe says the club will accept any punishment meted out to his players Method Mwanjali and Nyasha Mushekwi after they were named in a ZIFA report into match fixing.
FIFA has encouraged ZIFA to impose severe penalties, including life bans, on close to 80 players, coaches and ex-ZIFA officials revealed to have taken bungs from Asian betting syndicates to lose matches while playing for Zimbabwe.
Mushekwi and Mwanjali, who captains both his country and Sundowns, insist they were mere pawns along with their teammates in an elaborate racket orchestrated by the former ZIFA CEO, Henrietta Rushwaya, who was sacked from her job.
Motsepe said: “This is not only an issue of a legal matter but also of ethics.
“We will cooperate fully with FIFA and the officials from Zimbabwe with whatever they want from us. It is important that we not only comply with the rules but also promote the spirit of fair play and ethics that FIFA espouses.â€
Rushwaya, according to the ZIFA probe, organised several unsanctioned trips to Asian countries between 2007 and 2009 by the national team.
Singaporean national Wilson Raj Perumal, now serving time in a Finland jail after admitting fraud and match fixing there, paid Zimbabwe players thousands of dollars to lose matches by a set score. Rushwaya is thought to be pocketed up of US$250,000 in the scam which also sucked in club side, Monomotapa.
ZIFA’s former programmes officer, Jonathan Musavengana, and marketing officer, Harry Taruva, are also damned by the ZIFA probe report which has been handed over to the police, FIFA and Sports Minister David Coltart.