10 November 2016

Frome Town manager banned until 2019 for breaching FA betting rules

Nick Bunyard, manager of Frome Town, has been banned from all football activity until 1 July 2019, and has been fined £3,000 after England’s Football Association (FA) found he breached its betting rules. ‘An Independent Regulatory Commission heard how Mr Bunyard admitted misconduct in relation to 97 breaches of FA Rule E8(1)(a)(i) relating to betting activity between 13 September 2014 to 9 April 2016’, read an FA statement. ‘Of the 97 bets, 45 were placed against Paulton Rovers FC and Frome Town FC whilst Mr Bunyard was manager’.

The EvoStik Southern Premier Division club said that Bunyan may consider an appeal against the sentence, and was critical of the FA’s handling and portrayal of the facts of the case. ‘When considering the length of ban and £3,000 fine we, as a club, feel this is excessive, particularly in respect of the high-profile cases, none higher than the previous England manager, who seem to be dealt with immediately’, read a statement from the club. ‘We have, as yet, received nothing from the FA other than the statement published on their website…Presumably there will be a right of appeal, although we have no details of this as yet, nor spoken to Nick as to whether this is a course of action he would wish to pursue.’

The club said that it first became aware of the situation in April, when it suspended Bunyan whilst an investigation was undertaken. ‘It is important to add that he admitted the charges immediately and cooperated with the inquiry from the early days’, continued the statement. The club argued that the seven-month delay between an Interim Suspension Order (ISO) being imposed by the FA and a hearing being held was ‘too long’.

A hearing date of September was set, however ‘a couple of days before the hearing we were advised of further allegations that needed investigating and the case was held up again’, continued Frome Town’s statement. ‘These last-minute additions, from an anonymous source, included a report that Nick was present at a match and talking to Josh Jeffries (current manager) in the dugout by telephone during the game. This was immediately rejected as Josh was proved to in Italy at the time of the alleged offence and Nick also was not present. The second offence for which he was charged and found not guilty was that of sending a text message to a player whilst subject of the ISO.’

The club was also critical of the way in which the FA statement had led the media to portray the case. ‘The statement specifically reports “45 bets were placed against Paulton Rovers FC & Frome Town FC whilst Mr. Bunyard was manager” – the clear majority of bets on his “own teams” were for them to win and in total Nick bet against his own team to lose in eight games over the period’, continued the statement. ‘He did not bet on Frome/Paulton to lose 45 times as this appears to read. The charge that was “not proven” as a breach of his ISO was for allegedly texting a player – we have already seen this reported as “betting again even after he had been warned”’.

The club also said that it had not been given a chance to challenge the statement released by the FA , which had caused Bunyan to retire from football. ‘There was never any suggestion of “match fixing” and no accusation of such’, continued the statement. ‘The offence was using inside information (knowledge of injuries etc.) to gain an advantage over the bookmaker. Our disappointment lies in both the way the case has been handled and, we believe, the disproportionate punishment in respect of the offence.’

 

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