Former United midfielder Scholes fined RM42,200 for betting
LONDON:Paul Scholes has been fined £8,000 (RM42,200) by the FA after breaching betting rules while he was a co-owner and director at Salford City.
Scholes, 44, was initially charged by the FA after placing 140 bets on football matches between August 2015 and January this year.
There is no suggestion that Scholes was betting on the outcome of Salford matches, and no bets were placed by Scholes during the 31 days he was manager of Oldham Athletic earlier this year.
The FA tightened up their rules on gambling in 2014, effectively bringing in a blanket ban on any betting on any level of football for anyone involved in the game throughout the league pyramid.
Eight of the bets involved Manchester United, and the FA noted in their statement that Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, acquaintances of Scholes, were working for the club at the time.
One bet was on Valencia beating Barcelona. A further eight bets were placed on FA Cup matches.
The FA noted, though, that they were made after Salford had been knocked out of the competition.
Former England midfielder Scholes has apologised.
In a statement, he said: “I accept the 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.”
GARRY Monk has been fired by Birmingham City after being told he could not use his own agent in so many of the club’s transfer deals, the chief executive at St Andrews has claimed.
Monk, 40, was dismissed despite guiding the club to safety in the Championship after being hit with a nine-point deduction for a breach of EFL financial regulations.
But Xuandong Ren told Sportsmail that their relationship disintegrated when he told Monk that he would not be allowed to use agent James Featherstone in “all” the club’s transfers.
According to FA data, Featherstone was involved in nine of the 18 deals conducted by Birmingham after Monk arrived at the club in March 2018.