Manager who bet on football 'secretly' spared punishment by FA after 'gambling nearly £1m'

A football manager has 'secretly been let off by the FA' after gambling nearly £1 million on his own sport, according to stunning reports.

The manager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had eight betting accounts and admitted being a gambling addict, per The Athletic.

The majority of those bets were placed on horse racing as the court was told he had also contravened FA rules by placing bets on his own sport.

Image: Getty

It comes after Ivan Toney was hit with an eight-month football ban for breaching betting rules. He's currently serving a suspension and is not allowed to play again until January 17.

The FA, however, has decided NOT to take any action against the unnamed manager, other than to issue a warning.

According to evidence heard in court, the manager gambled £879,000 over two years. The manager ran up losses of £270,000 and had 'excluded himself from mainstream gamblers' in an attempt to change his lifestyle.

Bets ranged from £5 to £400 and were placed at one of his previous clubs, gambling on what was described in court as a 'handful' of football matches.

The Athletic states: "The FA has not stipulated whether Manager A’s state of mind played a part in the process that has ended with the governing body deciding against issuing the disciplinary charges that would ordinarily be expected."

The revelation of the manager gambling nearly £1 million comes after the Toney situation as well as Nottingham Forest defender Joe Toffolo, who has been hit with a suspension by the FA after the player admitted to 375 betting breaches, receiving a five-month ban.

In a statement, an FA spokesperson told SPORTbible: "We take all allegations of potential betting breaches very seriously, and we conducted a full and thorough investigation into this matter. The details of this specific case included a total of 28 historic bets on football, with only three bets placed, of a low value, after The FA’s introduction of a total ban for Participants to bet on football in 2014.

"The last of these bets were placed in 2017, and none of them were in relation to clubs that the individual was involved with at the time. With all aspects fully considered, the case was closed, and the individual was issued with a formal warning. The reports that suggest that this has been a secret process are categorically incorrect. There are legal restrictions on us being able to name the individual, which are unconnected with the betting matter."

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