Match-Fixing Persists in African Football with 117 IBIA Alerts Recorded from 2021 to 2025

Match-fixing continues to threaten African football as the continent’s sports betting market expands. The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) recorded 117 suspicious betting alerts involving African sporting events between 2021 and 2025. Football accounted for 67 of those alerts, more than any other sport. In 2025 alone the IBIA logged 31 such alerts, a figure the organization attributes in part to stronger monitoring and wider operator participation.

Africa’s sports betting and iGaming market could reach US$22 billion by 2029 according to H2 Gambling Capital, with around 90 percent potentially generated through regulated onshore markets. According to reporting by iGaming Future, the integrity of the underlying sporting product remains fundamental for operators, leagues, broadcasters, sponsors and bettors. A manipulated match damages more than a result. It erodes confidence in the entire market built around it.

Domestic Leagues Expose Organised Fixing Networks

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) monitored all inter-club and tournament activities in its 2024/25 season. It received two match-manipulation alerts, one tied to a World Cup qualifier and another to a CAF competition, but neither advanced to formal investigation due to insufficient evidence. CAF trained 425 referees through integrity education programmes.

Cases in lower-tier domestic leagues demonstrate the scale of the problem. In 2024 the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) provisionally suspended 13 people, including 10 referees, two administrators and one player, after uncovering an organised fixing scheme targeting seven matches in the men’s and women’s second divisions. The operation was financed by a South African-based syndicate. FUFA later banned 12 individuals, issuing a life ban to referee Kaddu Ali. FUFA Legal Manager Denis Lukambi declared: “99 percent of this process is about betting.”

In March 2026 FUFA received a FIFA betting report alleging manipulation in a Uganda Premier League match between Kitara FC and Express FC. Preliminary findings showed betting accounts linked to those under investigation won millions through a Tanzanian betting company. Five people were provisionally suspended.

Burundi’s Ligue A saw suspicious betting activity flagged to the IBIA in 2025. The Burundi Football Federation investigated deliberate underperformance and issued five-year bans to six players and one team director. Yussuf Mossi, President of the Burundi Football Federation’s Competition Committee, said: “If you are receiving 10 times your salary, how can you not take it?” He warned that permitting such activity would mean “our football league will be completely destroyed.”

In Kenya, Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa stated that match-fixing took root during the federation’s suspension between November 2021 and October 2022. Mwendwa noted that fixers exploited the absence of a regulator with expertise to detect and track activity. He added that federation disciplinary powers reach only members and called for arrests and criminal punishments to end the vice. In May 2025 FIFA expelled Muhoroni Youth from the National Super League and relegated the club to Division One for match manipulation.

Where Enforcement Falls Short

Detection has improved as more African matches enter international betting markets, yet proving manipulation, tracing funds and imposing meaningful sanctions remains considerably harder. The IBIA stresses that monitoring must be matched by effective regulation and cooperation among licensed operators, regulators, sports bodies and law enforcement. African football authorities and betting stakeholders face a narrow window to align these systems before market growth outpaces integrity safeguards. Without tighter coordination the risk is that isolated bans and alerts fail to deter sophisticated syndicates operating across borders.

Reporting: iGaming Future

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