Former Malta midfielder Kevin Sammut (right) has had his life ban from football reduced to 10 years by CAS.

Former Malta midfielder Kevin Sammut has had his life ban from football reduced to 10 years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Sammut had been banned for life by UEFA who found him guilty of helping a Croatian betting syndicate to rig Malta’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Norway but the Lausanne-based CAS has partially upheld the former Sliema and Valletta player’s appeal against his expulsion.

The long-awaited decision by CAS was received by Sammut’s lawyers yesterday.

“CAS have overturned the judgment from a life ban into a 10-year suspension,” Lucio Sciriha, who represented Sammut together with his father Michael, told Times of Malta.

“UEFA have also been ordered to pay all the costs related to this case.”

In its judgment, CAS noted that, although it still found guilt in Sammut, the lifetime ban imposed by UEFA was disproportionate to the role Sammut had in the case.

Dr Sciriha said that Sammut was a “pawn in a much larger game”. It is understood that some members of the CAS panel didn’t agree with the guilty verdict handed out to Sammut but the majority deemed otherwise.

“Kevin Sammut reiterates his innocence and has done everything possible, given the limitations he has encountered, to clear his name,” Dr Sciriha said.

“Admittedly, Sammut has no other remedies before sports tribunals.”

Dr Sciriha is convinced that the CAS might have reached a different conclusion if one of the key witnesses in the case had testified during the appeal hearing, held last February.

“It is pertinent to point out that people who might have shed light on the true facts of this case chose, for reasons known only to them, not to testify after they were asked to do so,” Dr Sciriha said.

CAS have decreed that Sammut’s 10-year ban is effective from August 2012 when UEFA issued its first ruling.

Sammut has denied colluding with convicted fraudster Marijo Cvrtak to fix Malta’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Norway for a betting ring. Malta suffered a 4-0 defeat after conceding three goals in the last 18 minutes.

The 33-year-old Sammut, a former MFA Footballer of the Year, was substituted at half-time.

UEFA had originally suspended Sammut for 10 years in August 2012 but its appeals body extended the punishment to life.

Ante Sapina, the notorious leader of a Germany-based betting ring, and Cvrtak were the prosecution’s main witnesses in the case against Sammut.

The match-fixing scandal had come to light during Cvrtak’s trial in Bochum three years ago but it later transpired that the Croatian had first alluded to the Norway-Malta game during questioning by the German police.

Cvrtak claimed that he had met Maltese players at their Oslo hotel before their 2007 match against Norway

UEFA found Sammut guilty but cleared former Malta intern-ationals Kenneth Scicluna and Stephen Wellman.