Paul Scholes has been fined by the Football Association for a breach of their betting rules, placing 140 bets on football in a three-and-a-half year period.
The FA forbids anyone working within the sport to gamble on football. As Scholes is a part owner of recently promoted Salford City, he must adhere to these rules.
The former Manchester United midfielder placed the bets between the period of August 17th 2015 and January 12th 2019, with the amount wagered standing at £26,159. Scholes made a £5,831 from the bets.
Eight of the bets were placed on Manchester United matches, at a time when fellow Salford owners Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt were employed by the club, while one was on Valencia to beat Barcelona at a time when Gary Neville was manager of the Spanish side.
Eight bets were also placed on competitions involving Salford, although this was done so after they were already eliminated.
Scholes was fined £8,000 by the FA, accepting their punishment while also claiming he had not deliberately broken the rules.
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.
