Dickson Etuhu has ‘escaped’ a six-year jail term after a Swedish court found him not guilty yesterday.
The Former Super Eagles midfielder was accused of attempting to fix the result of a 2017 league match between IFK Gothenburg and his former club, Stockholm giants AIK.
Etuhu was charged with trying to bribe his former AIK teammate, goalkeeper Kenny Stamatopoulos, to fix the result of the match.
The game, which was due to be played on May 18, 2017, was later postponed when Stamatopoulos informed his club about the supposed approach from Etuhu and another man, according to the pre-trial documents.
Denying the charge, Etuhu maintained that his former teammate must have misread the conversation, telling Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter: “I respect everyone's opinion, but the facts remain the same – it never happened … It's unbelievable that an ordinary conversation with a friend can lead to something like this.”
The 36-year-old represented Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup and spent 14 years as a midfielder in England for Manchester City, Preston North End, Norwich, Sunderland, Fulham and Blackburn Rovers before moving to play in Sweden.
On retirement, Etuhu embarked on a new career as a football agent.
This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago
