No match fixing investigation in Zimbabwe-DRC match - CAF chief Hajji
6th July 2019
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) says it is not investigating allegations of match fixing involving Zimbabwe at the Africa Cup of Nations following their 4-0 defeat to DR Congo but insists the governing body has zero tolerance for graft in the game.
Mouad Hajji, the General Secretary of CAF, says no official complaint has been received over the group stage game despite media reports in Zimbabwe that the continental governing body is investigating the match.
Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald reported that DR Congo could be kicked out of the tournament by CAF for trying to influence the result of the match against The Warriors on June 30 after a report by the Zimbabwe FA.
According to the report the match was being investigated by a CAF emergency committee, who could remove DR Congo from the tournament and ban the country from the continental tournament for three years as well as issue a hefty fine.
The newspaper alleged that wealthy DR Congo politician and businessman Moise Katumbi was involved in a plot to sway Zimbabwe goalkeeper Elvis Chipezeze to underperform in the 4-0 loss.
However Hajji says it has not received any complaint from the Zimbabwe FA but insists any serious information on any match fixing on any game will be seriously investigated by CAF.
"At the level of the CAF, there is no suspicion," the Moroccan said at a press conference in Cairo on Friday when asked about the media reports of CAF investigating the match between Zimbabwe and DR Congo.
"There is no hint of corruption about the Zimbabwe-DRC match in the third Group A match played on June 30, in Cairo.
"But if it turned out that there was anything, and not only for this match, I remind you that our policy is a zero tolerance policy on corruption. As of today, there is no correspondence or issue."
Baroka FC keeper Chipezeze only played in the match after first-choice George Chigova picked up an injury during the warm-up but did not cover himself in glory, conceding some soft goals.
Hajji was moved to comment about the issue after the newspaper reported that "a large sum of money was supposed to be transferred into the bank of the Zimbabwean goalkeeper but the transaction was not completed after an Egyptian bank raised the red flag and reportedly declined to handle the issue".
The author of this article claimed to have taken the information from "Alh Sports Cairo", a newspaper that is supposed to be Egyptian but a thorough verification has revealed that this newspaper does not exist.
DR Congo are due to play Madagascar in the last 16 of the tournament being played in Egypt.