SSF relegate club over match fixing

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s football governing body have relegated a club and penalised several officials over match fixing in the kingdom’s second tier.

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SFF) ordered the relegation of AlMojzel to the Second Division (Saudi’s third tier) over manipulating the result of its match with AlJeel, a statement said on Thursday.

The kingdom’s top division is the Abdul Latif Jameel League, followed by the First Division, which AlMojzel had belonged to.

The SFF also banned AlMojzel’s president Ahmed AlAbdallah, along with an administrator and a player, from practising any footballrelated activities for life.

They also fined each of them US$80,000 (RM325,040).

The managers of clubs Hajer and AlFeiha faced the same penalties along with other officials over unspecified violations.

The SFF said last month that they were probing a “suspected manipulation of results” insisting on the “importance of a fair competition”.