Eaton hints at amnesty

longer after it emerged yesterday that he is unlikely to make the trip.
Eaton also told Reuters that Fifa were ready to grant an amnesty to players or officials who would have been unfairly corrupted by match-fixing agents.
There has been a deafening chorus, most of it emanating from the Zifa board, suggesting that all Zimbabwean players implicated in Asiagate face automatic bans.
But Eaton has cleared the air.

“We will have an amnesty for players and officials who have been corrupted fairly young, unfairly corrupted, corrupted by a strong player or official or referee or someone who’s very influential in football, in a way they didn’t have any real choice.” Eaton said.
“Football did not invite gambling, Fifa derives no benefit from gambling.”
Eaton said ultimately it was up to the governments, and not Fifa, to sort out problems of match-fixing.

The Fifa security chief has already made a series of postponements on his proposed visit to Zimbabwe to help Zifa tackle the match-fixing allegations involving the Warriors in Asia.
Early this week, hopes were high that the Eaton will finally arrive today but Zifa communications manager Nicky Dhlamini yesterday cast some doubts on the visit.
“At the moment I do not have any confirmation of his arrival time yet and I do not think it’s available,” said Dhlamini.

“For now we will have to wait to hear from our president (Cuthbert Dube) on when he (Eaton) is likely to come. Some of the communication has been going through the president and he was out of the country.”
Zifa president Dube was expected to arrive home yesterday from Cairo, Egypt, where he attended a Caf meeting. Dube was selected as a committee member for the organising of the African Under-20 Championship.

The Zifa board have been banking on getting advice from Eaton on how they can complete their investigations into the Asiagate scandal.
Eaton has been tasked by Fifa to lead the world soccer governing body’s global fight against match-fixing and illegal betting syndicates.
The Fifa security chief is likely to be accompanied by investigations officer Terry Stean on the trip to Zimbabwe.

The duo had originally been expected to arrive in June but it was the historic visit by Fifa president Sepp Blatter, instead, which took place.
It is expected that Eaton and Stean will give direction to Zifa who are trying to name an Ethics Committee to deal with allegations that some players and officials were paid money to throw away matches by betting syndicates in Asia.

There has been suggestions that Fifa were reluctant to send Eaton to Zimbabwe because of the publicity such a visit would generate, especially after the Zifa Asiagate report claimed that Brazil’s national team were paid by the same Asian match-fixing agents.
Brazilian legend Ronaldo was fingered with allegations, contained in the report, which claim that he was paid to feign injury on the eve of the 1998 Fifa World Cup final between the Samba Boys and France.

Roberto Carlos, another Brazilian great, was also fingered in the Zifa report.
Fifa, however, invited Ronaldo to conduct the 2014 World Cup draw as a show of their confidence that he was certainly clean and not as corrupt as suggested by the Zifa Asiagate report.

Fifa could also be concern of the contagious effect that Asiagate could have on the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, given all the innuendoes contained in the Zifa report about the Samba Boys.
There have also been fears that the British media, which Fifa accuse of having an agenda to destroy the organisation, could also pick on the innuendoes, related to Brazil in the Asiagate report, to damage the 2014 World Cup finals.

As part of the investigations, Zifa have suspended board members Kenny Marange, Methembe Ndlovu and Solomon Mugavazi who were fingered as having participated in some games.