UEFA yesterday confirmed that midfielder Kevin Sammut has been handed a life ban.

The decision to increase Sammut’s match-fixing ban from 10 years to life was made at the end of a UEFA Appeals Body hearing in Nyon last Friday.

Sammut, 31, was found guilty of match-fixing over the Euro 2008 qualifier between Norway and Malta. The match ended in a 4-0 win for Norway who scored three goals in the last 18 minutes.

“Sammut has been banned from football-related activity for life for breaching UEFA’s principles of integrity and sportsmanship,” UEFA said yesterday.

The Malta FA also issued a statement yesterday confirming Sammut’s life ban after receiving notification of the UEFA Appeals Body decision, headed by Pedro Tomas.

UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary Body meted out the original 10-year ban last August but Sammut and the European governing body’s disciplinary inspector requested an appeal and that was where the life ban was imposed.

FIFA have been asked to make it a worldwide suspension.

Sammut is now expected to appeal the UEFA sentence with the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

An appeal may be lodged with the CAS within 10 days of the dispatch of the UEFA Appeals Body’s reasoned decision.

UEFA confirmed the decision of its control and disciplinary body to clear former Malta defenders Kenneth Scicluna and Stephen Wellman of match-rigging charges over the same Euro 2008 qualifier as “the Appeals Body considered that the findings of the disciplinary inspector were insufficient to take disciplinary measures”.