FA ban former Aston Villa youngster for three months over betting offences
Mitch Clark hit with suspended punishment and a £600 fine by the Football Association after placing 312 bets over a 13-month period
The Football Association (FA) has banned former Aston Villa and Leicester City defender Mitch Clark from all football activities for three months following multiple breaches of the FA’s betting rules.
This decision comes after an FA hearing into the 312 bets Clark placed on matches over a 13-month period between 8 February 2022 and 10 March 2023 while playing for Accrington Stanley.
Clark placed bets worth £2,215.15 across four accounts during the offending period and made a net loss of £1,622.38.
Of those bets, 68 involved competitions Accrington Stanley were involved in while three involved the club itself.
One of those three bets was for Accrington Stanley to lose. Clark was not in the matchday squad for that fixture.
As part of the investigation, Clark detailed his history of gambling addiction and noted he felt the issue was “getting worse”.
The defender added that he had only recently started betting on football in the 2021-22 season and was seeking help for his addiction from the Professional Footballers’ Association.
In determining the punishment, the panel noted that the relatively small value of the bets placed, Clark’s “genuine remorse” as well as his gambling addiction past saw the sentence hugely reduced from a potential six month to lifetime ban.
Clark’s three-month above ban will be suspended for two years pending any further breaches of the FA’s betting regulations.
Clark is the latest in a series of players to be banned by the FA for breaching betting rules.
The most high-profile case involves Brentford and England forward Ivan Toney, who has been banned from all football activities for eight months for breaching the rules 232 times. In addition to this ban, Toney was fined £50,000 for the breaches.
Other recent cases include former Sunderland forward Chris Maguire, who was banned from all football activities for six weeks following multiple breaches of the FA rules.
Newcastle United and England defender Kieran Trippier was banned for 10 weeks and issued a £70,000 fine in 2020 after telling a friend to bet on his move from Tottenham Hotspur to Atletico Madrid in August 2019.
Ex-Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge was given a four-month ban and a £150,000 fine after he told his brother to bet on a move to La Liga side Sevilla in January 2018.
Lastly, Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton was given an 18-month ban in 2017 for placing 1,260 bets over the course of a decade. Barton then retired from football following the ban despite it being reduced to five months following an appeal.