How FA Malawi sold World cup decider to Nigeria: Match fixing scandal

In a typical déjà vu fashion that is unravelling for football associations across the globe thanks to the long and perpetuated stay of disgraced FIFA President Sepp Blatter, investigations are gathering steam on events and circumstances surrounding the suspicious manner in which a Technical Director that was still in the employment of the Nigeria Football Federation to take charge, at the eleventh hour, of the Flames, Malawi’s national football team in a 2014 World Cup decider match.

Here is how the scam went: when it was known that Malawi was going to play a decider match against Nigeria, events which can only be termed as bizarre and corrupt happened.

Walter Nyamilandu led FAM fired Kinnah Phiri under cooked up reasons and immediately   Saintifield , a mercenary masquerading as a savior of the Flames was brought into Malawi by FAM on the bogus pretext that he was going to be a benevolent volunteer who will help Malawi beat Nigeria and qualify for the world cup pro bono.

Sentfield came in and the first thing he did was to weaken the FLAMEs and he fired the Flames most gifted, seasoned and talented players at that time and in that campaign including Captain Joseph Kamwendo on charges that were at best flimsy and in the worst just deserved some tough disciplining sanctions but not expulsion considering that there only two weeks or so to go before Malawi faced Nigeria.

To hoodwink Malawians the architects of this scheme within FAM quickly covered this up by bringing the likes of Kanyenda, a very popular player but who was largely inactive in South Africa at that particular point in time.

One can see that the suspension of Kamwendo and company was an organized ploy sanctioned at the highest in FAM otherwise the normal course of action should have been other disciplinary avenues considering the crucial game ahead.

Next the sensible course of action expected was that having suspended the top players in the squad under such suspicious circumstances, a proper commission of inquiry should have been done. None was done because someone at the very top of FAM knew exactly what was happening and they chose to lose their senses.

Irregular and Suspicious engagement of Sentifield

Prior to any engagement of a National Coach, FAM through sports council has to seek approval because besides the National team being a national asset and a flag carrier, taxpayers money are used to pay the coach.

To circumvent this requirement Sentifield came under the masquerade that he was going to work for free and will only get paid a game Bonus after Malawi beat Nigeria.

Now except for the very daft and most hopelessly naïve, every sane and sensible leader knows that nobody in the world , especially in football work for free; otherwise Zimbabwe could not have been banned for failing to pay dues to a fired coach. The loss of sanity in this case could not be an accident

To complicate matters Sentifield , at this material time of July 2013 was still engaged in a four year USD20,000 dollars a month contract with the Nigerian FA which he signed in March 2012. Records indicate that when he came to Malawi as a Nigerian FA mercenary his contract with the Nigerian FA was still running and that is why he was cared less whether he was paid or not because he was on a mission and his handlers were paying him besides the handsome booty at the end of the journey

Having perfectly consummated the scheme with the complicity of FAM leadership, the Flames were led like sheep down the abattoir to be butchered.

Having seen the merciless annihilation of the Flames under his hands Sentifield never bothered to come to Malawi and escort the dead for burial, he got on the next plane and abandoned ship. Mission accomplished. He never bothered to come and collect his dues let alone his toiletries as his bags were already safe and secured in Nigeria

Now having realized the mess of their business the Nigeria FA and the accomplice in FAM had to cover their tracks. They fabricated a squabble between Steven Keshi and Sentifield whose timing , after the deal was done, was perfectly suspicious, and then in a perfect jungle tactics the Nigerian authorities purportedly preposterously nullified Sentifield’s contract on the pretext of the squabbles with Keshi.

As they planned everything went quite and when the dust settled they all went to share their booty and enjoy it thereafter

The whole fiasco was a scam of the west order that includes all tactics of the underworld including racketeering, money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and most tragically for Malawi betrayal of the highest order of the Malawian football lover and the Malawian flag by the leadership of FAM.

With too match at stake for especially the Super Eagles, including their standing in the World of Football and the handsome bonus that comes with qualifications to world Cup tournaments, Nigeria understood that at the right price they could buy their way to secure success over Malawi by doing what any sane and intelligent leader of an opposing team should have known and said no to such scheme but they played ball because someone at the very top at FAM and Sports Council were in on the scam.

They had to fire Kinnah Phiri and the local backroom staff because knowing what qualifying for the world cup meant for their careers they could not be bought or bribed at any price.

Similarly Joseph Kamwendo and the other senior players dream was to go to the world Cup and they could not be bribed or bought at any price either. The best bet was to weaken the team and suspending them was a perfect excuse. See.

Racketeering and underhand dealings have always been the norm and the culture at FAM because they were simply following the cue from FIFA whose shenanigans are unravelling every hour.

One can only hope that nobody involved in this scam will be let to go unpunished and that a full investigation by all international and local crime busting agencies including the FBI, Interpol and the local agencies especial in Malawi will investigate to get to the bottom of this scam.

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