1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

FIFA imposes life ban on Botswana official

July 23, 2019

Mooketsi Kgotlele, the former head of the Botswana Football Association, has been banned for life for accepting bribes in relation to international matches. Which games were concerned remains a mystery.

https://p.dw.com/p/3MZE4
The FIFA logo on the wall at the Zurich headquarters
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Schmidt

Mooketsi Kgotlele, the former general secretary of the Botswana Football Association, was banned by soccer's world governing body, FIFA, on Monday. The disgraced onetime BFA chief was also fined 50,000 Swiss francs ($51,000/€45m500) by the Zurich-based organization.

Read more: US jury convicts two FIFA soccer bosses in corruption trial

The lifetime ban was imposed because Kgotlele "accepted bribes in relation to the manipulation of international matches," FIFA reported. 

Read moreFIFA probe: Switzerland suspends top economic crime prosecutor

Proceedings against Kgotelele began last September: "The formal ethics proceedings ... stem from an extensive investigation into various attempts to manipulate international matches for betting purposes by Wilson Raj Perumal, a known match-fixer," according to FIFA. Perumal, based in Singapore, was given a two-year jail sentence by a Finnish court in 2011 for bribing players and referees to fix matches.

Read more: Ex-Brazil FA head handed prison sentence for corruption

FIFA did not name specific games, but reported that the ethics violation related to its 2006 code.

Read more: Ghana football bribes documentary sends shockwaves through West Africa

The ban on Kgotlele covers all football-related activities, including administrative, sports or anything else at the national and international level.

jm/mkg (Reuters, dpa)

Every evening, DW sends out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here.