Paul Scholes apologises after being fined £8,000 by FA for breaching betting rules while co-owner of Salford
Paul Scholes has issued an apology after being fined £8,000 by the Football Association for breaching betting rules while co-owner of Salford City.
The former Manchester United and England midfielder was charged by the FA in April for placing 140 bets on matches between August 2015 and January this year worth over £26,000.
He was found guilty by an independent regulatory commission last Thursday, when he was fined £8,000 and told to pay £1,800 towards the cost of the hearing and warned about his future conduct.
In the FA’s written reasons, it was revealed that bookmakers Paddy Power - for whom Scholes had worked as a tipster during the 2014 World Cup finals - had blown the whistle on the 44 year-old by sharing his account activity with the FA.
The commission heard that, while none of the bets placed between Aug 17, 2015 and Jan 12 this year involved Salford, eight bets involved his former club, United, where his friends and Salford co-owners, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, were working at the time.
One bet was also placed on Valencia beating Barcelona at a time when Gary and Phil Neville - his Salford associates and former United team-mates - were working for Valencia. In neither case did the commission feel Scholes had a “connection” to the clubs that would have “aggravated” matters.
Another eight bets involved FA Cup matches and were made after Salford had been knocked out of the competition.
Paddy Power had notified Scholes in November last year - two months before contacting the FA - that he was potentially in breach of FA rules and effectively closed his account.
The commission heard that Scholes made a number of attempts to make more bets through that account which were unsuccessful although there was no evidence to suggest he was trying to bet on football matches. Scholes made a net profit of £5,831 on bets totalling £26,159.
In January this year, Scholes opened a new betting account with Bet365 and placed two bets on matches involving Oldham Athletic, whom he would later go on to manage, although, again, there was no evidence to suggest he had a “connection” with the League Two club that would “aggravate matters”.
Scholes had resigned as a Salford director in February in order to take over as manager of Oldham only to walk out of the job after just 31 days in charge.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Scholes said: “I accept last week’s ruling. I would like to apologise and I understand and fully accept the fine imposed by the FA. It was a genuine mistake and was not done with any deliberate intention to flout the rules.
“I wrongly believed that as long as there was no personal connection between me and any of the matches that I bet upon then there would be no issue. However I understand now that this is not the case and I should have taken steps to verify this at the time.”
The FA has strict rules precluding those being involved in the game betting on outcomes, regardless of whether teams they are directly involved with are competing in the associated matches.
