The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA)  has banned former Super Eagles player and coach, Samson Siasia for life and fined him $50,000 for allegedly agreeing to the manipulation of matches.

The 52-year-old Siasia was coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles between 2010 and 2011 and for a brief spell in 2016. The period within which the world football governing body believes he committed the offence is however unclear.

In a statement, FIFA said Siasia who also served as coach of the country’s Under-20 and Under-23 sides was found ‘guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches’. 

The sanction stems from an ongoing large-scale investigation which the Federation is currently conducting into the behaviour of Wilson Raj Perumal, a convicted match-fixer from Singapore.

Siasia becomes the third African to be banned by FIFA for having links with Perumal after former Sierra Leone Football Association official, Abu Bakarr Kabba and former Botswana official, Mooketsi Kgotlele were suspended in July for five years and for life respectively.

A former Nigerian international, Siasia won the 1994 African Cup of Nations with Nigeria for whom he played over 50 matches, scoring 16 goals in the process.