Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

FIFA imposed global ban on Armenian match officials, along with the players and referees from Armenia, Lebanon, Estonia and Tunisia who are implicated in match-fixing cases, soccer's world governing body FIFA said on August 29.

FIFA informed that the bans had already been imposed at local level by the respective federations and would now apply globally.

The organization extended life bans for two Armenian match officials on FIFA's international list, referee Andranik Arsenyan and assistant Hovhannes Avagyan who were both appointed in 2012 to FIFA's approved list for international matches. They admitted to trying to fix a Europa League match in July for a betting scam.

Arsenyan and Avagyan, who officiated in the match between FC Inter Turku and Vikingur, were previously banned for life by the Armenian federation and UEFA.

In an earlier Armenian Football Federation hearing, they admitted having tried to manipulate the outcome of the second-leg fixture, which ended 1-0 in favor of Vikingur.

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the international governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer. Its membership comprises 209 national associations. Its headquarters are in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter.

FIFA is responsible for the organization of football's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup.