Ali Sabbagh ( ar, علي صباغ; born 30 June 1979) is a Lebanese former football referee. He was a full international referee for FIFA between 2008 and 2013, before being banned for life from refereeing due to fixing a match in return for sexual favours.

Career

Sabbagh refereed in the

2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined by ...

, beginning with the match between

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

and

Timor-Leste East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-wes ...

. On 10 June 2013, the referee was sentenced to six months in jail by a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

court, after pleading guilty to influencing two linesmen to help fix an

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying ...

match which took place on 3 April 2013. He and the two linesmen "corruptly receiving gratification in the form of free sexual service", arranged by Singaporean businessman Eric Ding Si Yang. The

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

(AFC) has also banned Sabbagh from refereeing and attending stadiums.

Honours

* Lebanese Premier League Best Referee: 2009–10

References

External links

* * 1979 births People from Aley District Living people Lebanese football referees {{Lebanon-footy-bio-stub