ZURICH (AP) — An international soccer referee who has long been implicated in fixing matches has been banned for life for taking bribes.
FIFA says its ethics committee judges found Ibrahim Chaibou guilty of taking bribes and also fined him 200,000 Swiss francs ($201,000).
Now retired from officiating games, the referee from Niger was implicated in fixing international friendly games in 2010 and 2011 for betting scams linked to notorious fixer Wilson Perumal.
Chaibou typically awarded questionable penalty kicks to increase the number of goals scored.
The suspect games included 2010 World Cup host South Africa’s tournament warmup game against Guatemala, Bahrain’s game against a team of impostors representing Togo, and Nigeria hosting Argentina in a June 2011 friendly.
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