Fifa has announced it is to investigate Nigerian goalkeeper, Austin Ejide, after he appeared to throw the ball into his own net during a friendly game with Scotland. He is to be charged with being so blatant he ‘brought corruption into disrepute’.
Speaking from his penthouse suite in a five-star hotel in Qatar, Sepp Blatter said corruption in football was “a fine art that only a very few at the top can master.”
“The way he threw the ball into his own net was an embarrassment,” Blatter explained. “Even the referee disallowed it out of sympathy and to try and give him another go at it.”
“Russia and Qatar wouldn’t have World Cups if they had just given us brown envelopes in front of the cameras, would they?
“Ok, maybe they would but the point is they didn’t. They were much more subtle.”
It was not only the obvious attempt to throw the ball into his own goal that have brought corruption into disrepute during the game.
Suspicions were aroused when he stepped up to take a penalty. The Scotland players tried to tell him he should be attempting to save it but he was adamant he would score. And he would have, had he not still had his boot laces tied together.
His teammates appeared to be unhappy with his blatant attempts to throw the game.
Nigeria defender Azubuike Egwuekw said: “It was embarrassing. I told him to get a grip, but he said he couldn’t, especially not with all the butter he had spread on his gloves.
“Eventually though he changed them, calmed down and let me score a less suspicious own goal. He really could have let the team down.”
Blatter has said that should Austin Ejide be found guilty of bringing corruption into disrepute he will be banned from playing the sport and serving on the Fifa board in the future. Either that or a fine of 500,000USD in used notes delivered to Mr Blatter directly.
