Former Fulham midfielder Dickson Etuhu has been handed a five-year football ban for match-fixing.
Etuhu, 37, cannot play in Sweden for the next half-decade having been found guilty of attempting to fix a match between IFK Gothenburg and AIK in 2017. The Nigerian international avoided a prison sentence when he was found guilty last November, but he was hit with a fine and also ordered to serve probation.
His lawyers intend to take the case to Sweden’s supreme court after the ruling.
Etuhu, along with former IFK Rossjoholm player Alban Jusufi, is claimed to have met with AIK goalkeeper Kyriakos Stamatopoulos in May 2017 and offered him a £160,000 bribe to under-perform against Gothenburg.
Stamatopoulos reported the approach, however, and the upcoming fixture was postponed.
The Swedish football federation have now made the decision to ban both Etuhu and Jusufi for ‘deliberately trying to persuade an Allsvenskan player to underperform in one of their team’s matches’.
Etuhu came through Manchester City’s academy and played 13 times for the Citizens before joining Preston in 2002, with whom he spent the next four years.
After going on to represent Norwich and Sunderland, he joined Fulham for four years and starred as Roy Hodgson’s side first finished a club record seventh in the Premier League and then reached the Europa League final in 2010, losing to Atletico Madrid after extra-time.
A spell with Blackburn followed before Etuhu headed over to Swedish football with AIK in 2015.
