African football faces growing pressure over match manipulation – Legal & compliance

African football is under growing pressure to strengthen its response to match manipulation, as disciplinary cases and concerns over organised networks expose weaknesses in existing integrity systems.

Moses Swaibu, a former professional footballer and founder and CEO of sports integrity technology company GC360, tells iGB: “I speak from experience. I was a professional footballer [who] was recruited, and then I did the recruiting. I know how the grooming works because I did it.”

Swaibu, whose integrity education work has included organisations such as Fifa, UEFA, the FA, the Premier League and the PFA, stresses that figures on suspicious activity should be treated with caution.

“Rising alert volumes do not automatically mean rising manipulation. They often mean monitoring is getting better,” he says.

“What we can say with confidence is that the infrastructure to detect manipulation is strengthening in Africa faster than the infrastructure to prevent it.”

Swaibu warns that syndicates targeting African football are not “local opportunists”.

“They are international, sophisticated and they understand the market,” he says.

Uganda exposes organised networks

In June 2024, the Federation of Uganda Football Associations, FUFA, provisionally suspended 13 people while investigating a suspected multi-match-fixing scheme involving 10 referees, two football administrators and one player.

FUFA said its investigation, conducted with Fifa’s assistance, had identified what it described as a South Africa-based syndicate.

The federation said the group had approached referees, players and administrators and had allegedly targeted seven matches between October and November 2023.

The matches were played in Uganda’s men’s second division and women’s football.

FUFA legal manager Denis Lukambi said at the time that 99% of the fixing activity was betting related, with money placed in Uganda and abroad.

Fifa subsequently extended worldwide sanctions against seven Ugandans who had already been sanctioned domestically. Five players received five-year bans, while two referees were banned for 10 years.

FUFA’s wider match-manipulation crackdown continued in November 2024, when its Ethics and Disciplinary Committee sanctioned a further 12 people over a scheme connected to a foreign betting syndicate. One received a lifetime ban, while the others received bans ranging from one to 10 years.

FUFA has continued to pursue cases in 2026. In June, its Ethics and Disciplinary Committee found four players and a club administrator guilty of manipulating a Uganda Premier League match between Lugazi FC and Buhimba United Saints, which ended 5-2.

Former player Feni Ali received a lifetime ban after FUFA said he had acted as an intermediary between players and match-fixers.

Financial vulnerability and lower leagues

Swaibu tells iGB that financial vulnerability is the principal point of entry for fixers. “The entry point is always the same. It is not greed. It is financial vulnerability,” he explains.

“A player or a referee who cannot pay their rent is easier to recruit than one who wants a Ferrari.”

Swaibu says the pattern in Africa mirrors what he knew from his time in England. “The top flight gets the attention, but the fixing happens in the lower divisions. The second divisions, the women’s leagues, the youth competitions.”

He points to Uganda’s 2024 case and cites Burundi as an example of the incentives that can be offered to financially vulnerable players.

“Burundi issued five-year bans to six players and a director after deliberately underperforming players were paid ten times their salary,” he says.

“The president of Burundi’s competition committee, Yussuf Mossi, asked the obvious question: if you are receiving ten times your salary, how can you not take it?”

Mali opens integrity inquiry

In Mali, the Malian Football Federation, FEMAFOOT, has referred the 10 June Ligue 1 match between Afrique Football Elite and AS Korofina to its Independent Ethics Commission following integrity concerns surrounding the fixture.

FEMAFOOT said its independent ethics body would examine the available evidence and reach a conclusion under the federation’s rules. No finding of match manipulation has been made against either club or any individual.

Kenya considers criminal sanctions

Kenya is meanwhile seeking to strengthen its own laws when it comes to match-fixing.

The Sports (Amendment) Bill, 2026, sponsored by Irene Mayaka, passed the National Assembly on 19 August after MPs strengthened the proposed framework for dealing with manipulation of sporting competitions.

The bill would amend the Sports Act 2013 to define manipulation to include offering or receiving an undue advantage, conspiring to fix a result, deliberately underperforming and using insider information for betting.

If enacted in the form passed by the National Assembly, the offence would carry a fine of up to three times the value involved or KSh10m, whichever is higher, imprisonment for up to five years, or both.

Relevant sports organisations would retain separate disciplinary powers, including suspensions, temporary or permanent bans, deregistration and forfeiture of proceeds.

A club or sports association could also face forfeiture of the affected match’s outcome where the organisation in question or any affiliated professional sportsperson was involved.

The amended bill also gives the Directorate of Criminal Investigations responsibility for investigating potential criminal liability alongside the relevant sports organisation’s own disciplinary process.

It has since moved to the Senate for public participation and would still require completion of the legislative process and presidential assent before becoming law.

Fifa bans in ‘international conspiracy’

The proposed legislation follows a series of integrity concerns in Kenyan football, including Fifa’s finding in May 2025 that Kenyan club Muhoroni Youth had engaged in activities related to the manipulation of football matches and competitions.

Swaibu says Fifa has banned players in Kenya over what it called an international conspiracy.

He notes that Kenya’s Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis had warned that fixing had infiltrated multiple levels of the game, from grassroots football to the professional leagues.

Nairobi City Stars chief executive Patrick Korir welcomed the proposed reforms but warned that legislation alone would not eliminate match manipulation.

“There are clubs that have actually shut down because of this vice. Nairobi City Stars right now we are just at the edge whether to continue or just stop playing because there’s no safe space for the investment,” Korir said.

Swaibu says that Kenya Football Federation president Hussein Mohammed has moved to clear salary arrears for match officials “precisely so that there is no excuse when it comes to remuneration”.

“That is prevention done properly,” he explains. “If you are not paying your referees, you are not protecting your competition.”

A regional enforcement test

This is of course not a problem unique to African football. Cross-border betting networks, intermediaries and technology that allows betting activity to move between jurisdictions are creating similar challenges for integrity bodies pretty much everywhere.

Lawmakers are however making headway. Uganda has used football disciplinary procedures, Mali is handling the issue through its independent ethics process, while Kenya is considering criminal sanctions alongside sporting penalties.

Swaibu says that a manipulated match damages more than a result.

“It erodes confidence in the entire market built around it,” he explains. “Leagues, broadcasters, sponsors and bettors all depend on the underlying product being real. As African betting volumes rise, so does the value of protecting them.

“That is why I believe integrity has to become a formal component of licensing across the continent, not an optional add-on. Regulators should mandate integrity monitoring from the outset of their market’s development rather than retrofitting it later.”

“Africa is a priority market for us,” he says. “The growth is real, the vulnerability is real and the infrastructure that protects players at the point of approach is what is missing. That is the gap we exist to close.”

Suspicious bets can cross borders in seconds, while disciplinary and criminal proceedings can take months or years. The challenge for African sport, as elsewhere, is making sure that lawmakers and sporting bodies can keep up.