Cas ratifies Fifa's lifetime ban on Ghanaian referee Lamptey

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) has rejected Joseph Lamptey’s appeal against his lifetime ban imposed by Fifa.

The Ghanaian referee was banned for life by world football’s governing body for match fixing.

Lamptey’s corruption came to notoriety after he awarded South Africa a controversial penalty in their 2-1 victory over Senegal in a 2018 World Cup qualifier on 12 November 2016.

After the Ghanaian was found guilty, Fifa ordered the game to be replayed.

The replayed match, which ended in a victory for Senegal, meant the return of the West African nation to the World Cup for the first time in 16 years.

Six years of corruption

A Fifa investigation proved that Lamptey was linked to “numerous publicly documented scandals.”

"He [took] intentional decisions with the sole purpose of facilitating a minimum number of goals to make certain bets successful," stated Fifa.

“There was an obvious link between these intentionally wrong decisions and a deviation from an expected betting pattern, and consequently found Mr Lamptey guilty of having unlawfully influenced the result of the match.”

According to the investigation, the Ghanaian’s conduct dates back to African club matches organised by CAF in 2010.

However, despite suspicions of Lamptey’s corruption, the referee remained eligible for World Cup qualifying duties.

Fifa hasn’t responded to questions about how Lamptey was selected for the South Africa-Senegal match.

Unsuccessful appeal

After being punished with a lifetime ban by Fifa, Lamptey’s lawyers argued at the Cas that his refereeing mistakes were “innocent,” and that the punishment was “harsh and inhumane.”

However, Cas experts detailed how the pattern of mistakes was suspicious, for which reason the appeal was rejected.

"This CAS decision underlines FIFA’s commitment to protecting the integrity of football and its zero-tolerance policy on match manipulation, while also highlighting the effectiveness of its current agreement with Sportradar that uses their Fraud Detection System, which played an important role in this case," reads a statement by Fifa.