It Wasn’t Bribery, But An Agreement On A Coaching Job In Australia – Siasia Opens Up On FIFA Ban

Prior to being banned from Football Samson Siasia was one of Nigeria’s fine coaches in history, having guided the Flying Eagles (U-20) and the Olympic Eagles (U-23) nationals to silver at the 2005 World Cup and the men’s football event of the 2008 Olympic Games, also an applicant for the vacant Cameroon national team’s coaching job a few months before he was hammered by FIFA over allegation of bribery. 

The former Super Eagles coach in a recent interview with Athlist has refuted the allegation of bribery stating that what transpired between him and his contact, who was identified as a match-fixer was an agreement to take up a coaching job in Australia.

According to Siasia, he never knew the man he was talking to is a match-fixer. 

FIFA slammed Siasia for his alleged involvement in match-fixing in August 2019 but the 56-year-old, whose ban ends in a few months, whilst speaking to Athlist, narrated what really transpired between him and the match-fixer. 

In his words, “I spoke with someone who was trying to hire me as a coach in Australia, that’s someone I didn’t know was a match-fixer.

“FIFA knew this guy, yet allow him to be around a FIFA tournament”, Siasia added. 

The 1994 AFCON winner questioned the basis for his punishment saying, “It’s an allegation; they said bribery but shouldn’t bribery involve when money changes hands, are there any proof of money changing hands?” Siasia asked rhetorically and responded, “No, there were none.”

The Olympics silver medalist coach explained further that all he discussed with the guy was the terms of his proposed Australia coaching job and nothing else.

“We talked about how much salaries, transfers, bonuses, and sign-on fees were, and tha was all,” Siasia told Athlist sports during the interview.

Samson Siasia also accused the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) of abandonment. 

He said, “Nigeria abandoned me at that time of need; that’s my own take on how this thing played out,” 

Due to lack of adequate finance, It took Siasia about 2-years to appeal the ban, and after doing so in June 2021 at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), he was able to secure a reduction of the suspension to five years and the cancellation of the additional fine of 50,000 Swiss francs ($54,000).