The FA have been criticised for a lack of consistency after being accused of ‘letting off’ a manager accused of gambling on football whilst at the same handing Ivan Toney an eight-month ban for similar offences.
In a report published by Daniel Taylor of The Athletic, a football manager currently working in the EFL was the subject of a blackmail case against two former professional players, Alan Rogers and Steven Jennings.
Within that case, the court heard that the manager had placed a ‘handful of bets’ on football. Due to the manager being granted anonymity, though, the FA have been said to be reluctant to punish the manager.
Even though the suggestion that a ‘handful of bets’ is a lot smaller than the allegations of Toney, there have been players, such as Jack Colback and Kyle Lafferty, that have received publicised punishments for placing just one bet on football.
After the aforementioned blackmail case was dismissed in court last year, at the request of the defendant, Alan Rogers planned to take legal action against the unnamed manager due to the legal costs that he had accrued in seeking to defend himself.
In his initial story almost exactly 12 months ago, it was revealed in court that the manager had gambled £879,000 across two years with losses of £270,000 and a judge also had to intervene after the manager ‘offered match tickets to the detective leading the investigation’.
Rogers, formerly of Nottingham Forest, said of his intent to sue the unnamed manager:
“I’m putting a £100,000 deposit on file with my barrister and I want every single penny back that I’ve lost. I’ll be suing him and I will throw every spare penny that I’ve got towards hitting him from every single angle. I will also be challenging his anonymity because I have been named in public when I have done absolutely nothing. It’s actually comical, but these last few years have been a nightmare.”
According to The Athletic, the FA have declined to comment on anything regarding the case but the pressure on English football’s governing body to address the issue is set to grow.
