Police constable among 14 facing life ban for match-fixing in Goan football

PANAJI: Fourteen players and officials, which includes a police constable, Mouzzan Shaikh, attached with the Goa Police football team, are on the brink of facing suspensions and even life bans for alleged roles in match-fixing in Goa Professional League.In his preliminary report, Goa Football Association’s integrity officer and retired deputy superintendent of police Sandesh Chodankar has said “there is ample evidence of match-fixing”. “All 14 players/officials have violated multiple provisions of the GFA Ethics Code 2021,” Chodankar said in the 288-page chargesheet, which was handed over to the players on Friday, most of whom are from Chapora. They’ve been given 10 days to reply to the charges. Chapora President Pravin Dabholkar had filed a complaint that nine of the club’s players — Akash Kudnekar, Krishnanath Shirodkar, Sachidanand Satelkar, Bhaskar Jalmi, Aman Govekar, Chaitan Dabholkar, Rohan Pednekar, Vinayak Rane and Akash Sanadi — were involved in “matchfixing for monetary benefits”. All of them had met a suspected match fixer, who has only been identified as ‘masked man’ Sandy.