The Football Association has been conducting a ten month long investigation of five Accrington Stanley players. The investigation has ended and the Football Association has charged the five players with breaking the rules on betting. The Association rules prevent players from wagering money on any match or competition of which they are participating or have influence over.

The four players are accused of placing bets on the opposite team, Bury, to win the match against them while one player was on the Bury team. The five placed stakes ranging from 5 Euros to 4000 Euros. The five players accused are: Jay Harris, David Mannix, Robert Williams and Peter Cavanagh of Accrington Stanley at the time of the incident and Andrew Mangan of Bury.

It has been reported that this is the first time players have been accused of betting on their own team to lose a match. Others have been charged of gambling to win their matches. William Hill and Coral bookmakers as well as others stopped taking bets on the game after suspicious betting patterns were found.

Reports surfaced that the typical bet was around 20,000 while this game was attracting bets of 300,000. The FA changed the officials of the game and then sent an independent assessor to monitor the match.

The players charged have until April 23rd to respond. The Accrington Stanley club released a statement commenting: “Accrington Stanley is aware that two of our players have been charged by the FA in connection with betting on football matches. They have until later this month to respond to the charges, and we will wait until the FA reach a final verdict before any action is taken by the club.”







- 2009-04-08