• On 6 January 2014, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Disciplinary Committee rendered final decisions in the cases involving three Lebanese match officials, Ali Sabbagh, Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb, after their attempts to manipulate an AFC Cup match in April 2013. Referee Ali Sabbagh received a lifetime ban from all football-related activities as well as a lifetime stadium ban. Assistant referees Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb each received a ten-year ban from all football-related activities as well as a ten-year stadium ban. The sanctions follow provisional bans imposed on the match officials in 2013 pending the outcome of the investigations.

• On 6 December 2013, The Football Association (FA) decided to sanction two players, Hakeem Adelakun and Michael Boateng, with interim suspensions from all football-related activities after being notified that the players had been charged by the UK National Crime Agency with the criminal offence of conspiracy to defraud.

• On 17 December 2013, the Disciplinary Committee of the Slovak Football Association (SFZ) decided to sanction three players, Marián Dirnbach, Ivan Hodúr and Tomáš Huber, with suspensions ranging in length from 14 to 25 years in connection with manipulation of several matches in the Slovak Corgoň Liga (top division) in the 2013-2014 season. These decisions are final and binding, since no appeal was lodged within the relevant time limit. In the case of another player, Michal Dian, the SFZ Appeal Committee decided to reject the appeal lodged by the player and confirm the decision of the SFZ Disciplinary Committee of 17 December 2013. As such, the player has received an 18-month ban from all football-related activities in connection with the same match-manipulation charges as the other three players.

• The Disciplinary Committee of the El Salvador FA (FESFUT) has provisionally suspended one El Salvador player from all football-related activities following investigations which relate to incidents of match manipulation that occurred in a friendly match of the El Salvador national “A” team in 2013. In a separate case involving another El Salvador player, the FESFUT Appeal Tribunal decided to reject the appeal lodged by the player and confirm the decision of the FESFUT Disciplinary Committee on 19 September 2013 to sanction the player with a six-month ban from all football-related activities for having illicitly influenced the result of a friendly match played by the El Salvador national “A” team in 2010.

The chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to extend all of the sanctions in the above cases to have worldwide effect in accordance with article 78 paragraph 1(c) and article 136ff of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. The decisions by the chairman were duly notified to the respective confederations and member associations on 28 January 2014.

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