Accrington and Bury players charged with betting on their own football game

THE Beeb has achy breaky news on a new gambling scandal set to detract attention away from the Premier League’s big four clubs - which can’t be a bad thing.

Five players, four from Accrington Stanley and one from Bury, have been charged by the FA with breaching betting rules. The Beeb reports:

“Four players then at Accrington - Jay Harris, David Mannix, Robert Williams and Peter Cavanagh - and Andrew Mangan, who was at Bury, have been charged.

The five have been charged with betting on a victory for Accrington’s last game of last season at home to Bury.

All five face serious sanctions including the chance of suspensions.

Both Harris and Cavanagh played in the game which ended 2-0 to Bury.

Some bookmakers stopped taking bets on the League Two match after noticing unusual betting activity.

“All five are alleged to have placed bets on Bury to win this match,” said an FA statement.

“Mannix is alleged to have placed stakes to the value of approximately £4,000; Mangan £3,500; Harris £2,000; Williams £1,000; and Cavanagh on a £5 accumulator.”

This one’s set to run and run, although as these players are virtual unknowns, it might just run and then fizzle out.

Obviously, Premier League players are paid a hell of a lot more than footballers in the lower leagues, so when something like this does come out, it’s no surprise that household names aren’t mentioned.

Anorak

Posted: 7th, April 2009 | In: Sports Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink