Star Atletico Madrid and England defender Kieran Trippier will be out of action for some time after he was handed a fine and a suspension by the Football Association (FA) for breaching their betting rules. The breach is believed to date back to July 2019, although the violations had been strenuously denied by Trippier, who left Tottenham to join Atletico Madrid at the end of the 2018/19 season.
Trippier was initially charged with seven breaches of FA Rule E8, which he denied, requesting a personal hearing. An independent regulatory commission investigated and dismissed three of the alleged breaches but upheld the remaining four.
The defender now faces the prospect of a £70,000 fine along with a ten week match ban, which came into effect on December 23 2020, following a request to FIFA. The Commission’s written reasons for the sanction will be published in the following months, according to a statement released by the FA which outlined the result of the personal hearing.
The ban means that Trippier will not be available for Atletico’s Champions League round of 16 first-leg tie against Premier League Chelsea, which is due to be staged in Madrid on February 23, as he will now miss a minimum of 13 games in all competitions, with his return slated for the Madrid derby in March. At the time of writing, Diego Simeone’s Atletico side sit three points clear at the top of La Liga as well as having a game in hand on Real Madrid who are second, and Trippier, who has played every minute of their Champions League and La Liga campaign, will be sorely missed.
The news of the Trippier verdict comes in the same month when the FA took action against a member of the West Bromwich Albion backroom staff. Paul Terry, the brother of former player John Terry, who works as the ‘Loan Manager’ at Albion, confessed to more than 209 breaches of the betting rules. According to reports, he had placed a number of high stakes bets, totalling more than £63,000, including two bets of £10,000 on games featuring Manchester United and England.
The ban also comes only nine months after another international, Daniel Sturridge, was handed a punishment for the same offence. Sturridge was initially given a six week ban and a £75,000 fine when he was found guilty of passing on information regarding a transfer move to his brother. The FA appealed against what they saw as the leniency of the sentence, and the ban was subsequently increased to four months, while the fine was doubled.