{"id":79617,"date":"2018-06-04T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T21:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=79617"},"modified":"2018-06-04T14:13:18","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T21:13:18","slug":"entire-saudi-refereeing-team-banned-from-russia-2018-world-cup-under-match-fixing-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/entire-saudi-refereeing-team-banned-from-russia-2018-world-cup-under-match-fixing-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"Entire Saudi Refereeing Team Banned from Russia 2018 World Cup Under Match-Fixing Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

With less than two weeks to go before the 2018 World Cup<\/a> kicks off in Russia, FIFA, the world soccer governing body, has booted the entire Saudi refereeing team over a match-fixing scandal.<\/p>\n

\"Fahad
Fahad Al-Mirdasi made the worst refereeing decision of his career when he decided to try to fix a Saudi league cup final earlier this year. He and his refereeing team are now considered personae non gratae<\/em> at the Russia 2018 World Cup. (Image: Karim Jaafar\/Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The news comes after Fahad Al-Mirdasi, who has served as a full international referee for FIFA since 2011, was banned from soccer for life by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation two weeks ago for soliciting bribes to help a team win a domestic cup final.<\/p>\n

As a result, FIFA said Al-Mirdasi and two assistant referees, Mohammed AL Abakry and Abdulah Al-shalwa, have been removed from the tournament \u201cin line with FIFA\u2019s overall philosophy of seeking to appoint match officials together as a team of three during the preparation\u201d \u2013 although the assistant referees are not suspected of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Al-Shalawa told the Arab News that the decision was \u201ca nightmare\u201d for him. \u201cI have been working to go to the World Cup for 16 years but now it is over,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While Al-Mirdasi had never officiated a World Cup match during his FIFA tenure, he has overseen games in the Olympics and the Confederations Cup.<\/p>\n

Second Referee Ban Ahead of Russia 2018<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Al-Mirdasi is the second FIFA referee to receive his marching orders for match-fixing in the past 18 months. In March 2017 Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey was banned for life for \u201cunlawfully influencing match results,\u201d apparently at the behest of a gambling syndicate.<\/p>\n

\n

Suspicions were aroused when the Ghanaian, who had a history of dubious decisions, awarded a penalty to South Africa for a non-existent handball during a 2016 World Cup qualifier against Senegal. FIFA ultimately ordered the game to be replayed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At a meeting of the Betting on Football Conference<\/a> at Chelsea FC\u2019s Stamford Bridge stadium in March, representatives of various soccer and gambling bodies warned that, while match-fixing at Russia 2018 was unlikely, the tournament was not immune to it.<\/p>\n

Are Soccer Referees’ Salaries an Integrity Issue? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

While match-fixers tend to avoid the highest-profile games because they are more difficult and more expensive to fix, the sheer volume of bets expected at this year\u2019s tournament may make it harder to spot suspicious patterns.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jake Marsh, head of integrity at digital media group Perform, told the conference that the perception that all soccer players are extremely wealthy and therefore less susceptible to bribes can sometimes be false. He said that following a friendly between two unnamed international teams last year, the visiting team was unable to pay its hotel bill.<\/p>\n

Referees, it should be noted, are less wealthy still. Elite officials in the English Premier League — the world\u2019s richest — can earn a modest but comfortable\u00a0\u00a370,000 a year ($93,000). But in poorer leagues, like Ghana\u2019s, for example, where Lamptey plied his trade, refereeing is still a part-time job where top officials earn around $150 per game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With less than two weeks to go before the 2018 World Cup kicks off in Russia, FIFA, the world soccer governing body, has booted the entire Saudi refereeing team over a match-fixing scandal. The news comes after Fahad Al-Mirdasi, who has served as a full international referee for FIFA since 2011, was banned from soccer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":79618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSaudi Refereeing Team Ejected from Russia 2018 World Cup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Top Saudi referee Fahad Al-Mirdasi banned from Russia 2018 World Cup finals over domestic match-fixing scandal. 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He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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