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Kasinauyo suspended

Sport
Zifa executive committee member responsible for technical affairs, Edzai Kasinauyo has been suspended by the football mother body after he was accused of trying to fix the result of the Warriors-Swaziland 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier in Mbabane on March 25.

. . . allegations of fixing Zim-Swazi tie

Zifa executive committee member responsible for technical affairs, Edzai Kasinauyo has been suspended by the football mother body after he was accused of trying to fix the result of the Warriors-Swaziland 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier in Mbabane on March 25.

BY KEVIN MAPASURE

Edzai-Kasinauyo

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 finals.

Zimbabwe will go into the match as favourites.

But Zifa allege Kasinauyo has been in contact with a syndicate in Asia in a bid to fix the result of that match, presumably for Zimbabwe to lose the encounter.

While details were sketchy, it was established last night that Zifa had received a tip-off that a match-fixing syndicate in Asia was in contact with Kasinauyo, who was supposed to communicate with the players.

Kasinauyo, who was elected as an executive committee member in December last year, expressed shock when he was contacted for comment last night, as he had not been invited for yesterday’s meeting or been informed of the allegations.

“I am just as shocked as everyone else as to where this is coming from,” he said.

“I have not made any contact with anyone in Asia about the match and, to make matters worse, I have learnt of these allegations from people that have read the statement. I was not told about today’s (yesterday’s) meeting and I was not informed about the allegations. I am trying to contact other board members to find out what’s going on.”

The Zifa statement on the matter read: “The Zimbabwe Football Association executive committee would like to inform the football fraternity, and the nation at large, that following its meeting held in Harare today (yesterday), it has provisionally suspended executive committee member, Edzai Kasinauyo. 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 president, Phillip Chiyangwa will issue a statement after consultations with Cosafa, Caf, Fifa and the government of Zimbabwe.”

Warriors coach ,Kalisto Pasuwa is set to name the squad that will do duty in this important Afcon tie this week.

The squad is expected to be dominated by Europe and South Africa-based players.

This is not the first time that match-fixing allegations have emerged in Zimbabwe after the infamous Asiagate scandal, which saw several players and officials being implicated in 2012, with no less than 80 people affected.

Some of the players and officials admitted to throwing matches, but there were flaws in the way Zifa handled the case, leading to its collapse.