Shock as Caf hands Kenyan referee life ban

What you need to know:

  • The decision to hand Marwa the ban was reached at a Caf disciplinary board meeting where 10 other officials were handed suspensions and bans.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) on Saturday banned Kenya's celebrated assistant referee Aden Marwa from all football activities for life.

The decision was made on Saturday by the Caf Disciplinary board over cases of the referees named in media.

Ten other referees were handed different bans of between two to 10 years while 11 were provisionally suspended pending their appearance in front of the board on August 5.

“The following decisions were taken by the Caf Disciplinary board regarding the referees involved, Mr. Marwa Range, assistant referee (Kenya); life ban from all Caf related football activities,” read the statement.

Marwa was as a result struck off the 63 assistant referees’ list for the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.

Marwa, one of Kenya’s leading football referees, lost the chance of officiating at the ongoing 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia over allegations of bribery.

Marwa was filmed in a BBC investigative piece by Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas receiving a $600 (Sh60,000) bribe on June 6 this year. Anas posed as a Ghanaian football official when he approached Marwa at the 2018 Africa Nations Championship in Morocco.

The Kenyan was also in Fifa’s official list for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil but was not given any game to officiate.

Marwa’s ban comes barely a year after his compatriot, Davies Omweno, was banned for three months by CAF for ‘poor performance’.