Soccer: Players' illegal betting rocks soccer

Substantial illegal bets placed by footballers last year on their own team to lose a league match are "just the tip of the iceberg" of a far-reaching, organised scam, say several senior insiders from both within the sport and the gambling industry.

The sources said "large six-figure sums" were involved, but the full extent of the corruption is only now beginning to emerge after an investigation by the Independent newspaper.

The investigation in question involves Accrington Stanley's home defeat to Bury in May last year, and has discovered that some of the Football Association charges against six players were brought on the basis of closed-circuit TV film showing players wagering large cash sums in local betting shops.

Cash betting is thought to be a more anonymous means of gambling than using telephone or online accounts for placing bets.

The FA brought charges against six players, five of whom wagered amounts up to 4000. But the betting industry is estimated to have taken up to 800,000 on the game, around 10 times the expected levels.

Yet in a candid admission of how impotent the FA is in potential match-fixing cases, an informed source has told the Independent that the FA "is highly unlikely to charge a player with match-fixing" and will not in this case.

Match-fixing is too hard to prove, to specific legal satisfaction, whereas infringements of football's own betting rules are more clear-cut and more likely to end in convictions, though the matter remains with the sport's governing body.

The only scenario where the FA can envisage match-fixing charges would be if a whistleblower, involved in a crime, admitted it and implicated others. That remains unlikely.

It is still possible that the police could become involved in the Accrington affair, once the FA has finished with the case, and depending on whether the Gambling Commission - the industry watchdog - advises there could be grounds to suspect a conspiracy to defraud. The handling of the case will also test the resolve of the football authorities and the commission to root out betting corruption.

The case took a fresh twist yesterday when five players, all charged by the FA on April 7 with breaches of FA betting rules, were given an extra fortnight to take more legal advice over how they will plead.

The verdict will now be delivered after the end of the domestic football season. If convicted, the defendants would be the first British professional footballers in decades to be found guilty of betting on their own team to lose, and the first in decades to be found guilty of any irregular betting.

Repercussions could be widespread. The Uefa president, Michel Platini declared: "The greatest danger to football is match-fixing," and vowed to combat the problem.

David Mannix, Jay Harris, Robert Williams and Peter Cavanagh were all on Accrington Stanley's books on May 3 last year when they allegedly bet sums of 4000, 2000, 1000 and 5 respectively on their side to lose to Bury that day. Accrington lost 2-0. No player is allowed to bet on a match in which he or his team is involved or can influence.

The "Stanley Sting" unfolded in the days running up to May 3 last year, the last day of the regular League Two season.

Accrington were originally the favourites until backers starting piling unusually large sums, in cash, on Bury to win.

The betting was concentrated at high-street shops in the North-west of England, mainly around Merseyside.

- INDEPENDENT