Aston Villa Have Banned Team From Playing Fantasy Football As Investigation Continues
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Aston Villa have taken action by banning their team from playing Fantasy Football for the foreseeable future.
The news has emerged as the Premier League club continue their investigation surrounding the 'leaked' injury news of captain Jack Grealish at the weekend.
Grealish, who has a shin injury and is expected to be out for around two to four weeks, was ruled out of Sunday's clash with Leicester City due to injury, but many already knew thanks to FPL.
The Athletic have reported teammates Matt Targett, Conor Hourihane [on loan at Swansea City] and Neil Taylor all transferred the 25-year-old out of their team prior to his injury being confirmed.
Other members of staff also did so, including physio Rob Marshall.
Twitter account @insider_fpl told their followers about the Grealish news - as well as Liam Cooper's decision to take Leeds teammate Ezgjan Alioski out of his team - and many proceeded to take action.
:warning::small_red_triangle_down: [AVL] Multiple insiders transferred OUT Grealish!
- FPL Insider (@insider_fpl) February 19, 2021
○ [02-19] Matt Targett
○ [02-19] Conor Hourihane
○ [02-19] Neil Taylor
○ [02-19] Scott (1st Team Performance Analyst)
○ [02-18] Rob (Physio)#FPL #GW25
:warning::small_red_triangle_down: [2021-02-19] [LEE] Liam Cooper has transferred OUT their own teammate Alioski! #FPL #GW25
- FPL Insider (@insider_fpl) February 19, 2021
It has now emerged that Villa have banned players from playing Fantasy Football amid concerns about the leaking of Grealish's injury, although they do not believe it was the source of the leak, report The Times.
NEW: Aston Villa ban players from taking part in fantasy football following Grealish injury leak https://t.co/aPjBWYKbOj
- Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) February 22, 2021
Information regarding FPL is easy to obtain, as you can see from the Twitter account above, and there is currently no regulation from the Premier League regarding it.
It is believed staff could be encouraged to not pick players from their own teams to give away crucial information.
Villa manager Dean Smith discussed Grealish's injury following Sunday's 2-1 defeat and he was aware of the news.
"I've been made aware that on social media there were some rumours that he wasn't going to play." he said. "If it's coming out of our training ground, then I find out where it is coming from and reprimand where it's coming from.
"Yeah, it certainly does [give a leg up] and it's something I wouldn't be happy with so we'll certainly get to the bottom of this."
Topics: Aston Villa, Football, Jack Grealish, Premier League, Fantasy Football
