Eaton expected on Friday

Zimbabwe on Friday.
Eaton has been tasked by Fifa to spearhead the world soccer governing body’s global fight against match fixing and illegal betting syndicates.
The Fifa security chief, who will be accompanied by investigations officer Terry Stean, had originally been pencilled in to come in June before being forced to reschedule his tour owing to some “pressing and urgent commitments in Mexico and Colombia.

Eaton and Stean are key to helping Zifa bring to finality the Asiagate scandal that rocked the domestic game after the Warriors and other local teams undertook controversial trips to Asia where they were allegedly paid to throw away matches.
The scam also sucked in local referees with the quartet of Kenny Marange, Cosmas Nyoni, Masimba Chihowa and Christopher Manuel being accused of allegedly being paid to fix the outcome of a match between Togo and Bahrain in China in 2009 in which the West Africans were thrashed 5-1.

Marange, now Zifa’s second vice-president, has since been suspended from all football activities along with fellow board members – Northern Region chairman Solomon Mugavazi and board member development Methembe Ndlovu.
The Mutare official, just like most of those implicated has, however, denied any involvement in match-fixing and insists he is innocent.

Their status in the game will now be determined after an independent Ethics Committee that will be set up by Zifa comes up with recommendations. The visit by Eaton will, however, help to give Zifa some direction on some of the sticking points on how to handle the final and decisive part of the Asiagate scam.
Zifa communications manager Nicky Dhlamini said yesterday they are still expecting Eaton and Stean at the end of the week.

Dhlamini also revealed that Zifa president Cuthbert Dube, who is expected to commission the members of the Ethics Committee, is currently in Cairo, Egypt for a Confederation of African Football indaba.
“As far as it stands we are still expecting the Fifa delegation by the end of this week unless things change during the course of the week.
“The Zifa president has also been out of the country and should be back tomorrow or the day after and it was agreed that he will be the one who will commission the Ethics Committee,” Dhlamini said.

Once they clarified that the association’s Ethics and Fair Play committee headed by Southern Region chairman Gift Banda would not be handling the Asiagate issue, Zifa were forced to delay naming the Independent Ethics Committee in order to make enough consultations with the prospective commissioners.
It has also emerged that Eaton has compiled a dossier on Zimbabwe following his tour of duty to Malaysia where he was investigating match-fixing and illegal betting.

It is believed that the information that Eaton uncovered on Zimbabwe in Malaysia could also be useful to Zifa given that the local probe team, led by Ndumiso Gumede which compiled the Asiagate report, did not have the resources to take their investigations to any of the Asian countries.

Both the Warriors and 2008 Premiership champions Monomotapa played some matches in Malaysia, which were subject to the Gumede probe. Monoz actually masqueraded as the Warriors on their tour of Malaysia in July 2009 which they used as part of their preparations for the Champions League group stage campaign in that year.

Fifa, however, cleared the Football Association of Malaysia of any involvement in match-fixing even though the world body said there was evidence of the existence of match-fixing syndicates in that country.
With Gumede’s committee complaining that there was no paper trail at the Zifa offices on how the trips were arranged and whether any funds were paid to the association as appearance fees.

It is also still not clear whether all the matches that Zimbabwe took part in were by invitation to their games in the Far East at association to association level or whether the games were arranged by agents or the match-fixing syndicates connected to jailed Singapore national Wilson Raj Perumal.