Maduka Okoye will not be eligible to play for the senior national team of Nigeria in the world cup qualifiers following a confirmation by his team that he will be out of competitive football for a period of two months due to a ban.
Prosecutors alleged that the goalkeeper deliberately got booked late into the game owing to betting patterns from a province of Udine, where he resides on him getting a second yellow card.
He went to the court and according to a statement by Udinese, he was excluded from any sporting fraud, but given a two months ban for another offence totally unrelated to fixing a game. A four year ban would have been the verdict if he was found guilty of sporting fraud.
“The Federal Tribunal of the FIGC has today excluded any involvement of the player Maduka Okoye in sporting fraud, fully accepting the arguments put forward by his lawyers,” read a statement from Udinese.
“In the courts, all the accusations of presumed sporting fraud were dismissed, and the decision to impose a two-month ban was exclusively with regards to violation of the generic principle of fairness (article 4 of the Sporting Judicial Code).
“The club is satisfied that the athlete has been totally cleared of the insulting allegations of match-fixing. The club cannot help but reaffirm the maximum support to Okoye, who is waiting to read the motivation of the sentencing.
“Udinese reaffirm our full faith in the correct behaviour of Maduka.”
The two-month ban will begin from the first official game of the season for Udinese, which is their scheduled Coppa Italia tie against Carrarese on August 18.
That means the goalkeeper will miss six Serie A matches and be back in action from October 18, and with Nigeria due to play South Africa and Rwanda in September he is effectively out of both games.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
