Trippier banned 10 weeks for betting violation

Kieran Trippier has been suspended from all football-related activity for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 after an independent investigation found that the right back breached the English Football Association’s betting rules.

The breaches stretch back to July 2019, when the England international moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Atlético Madrid.

The specific rule Trippier is cited to have broken is rule E8(1)(b), which is “where a Participant (i.e. Trippier) provides to any other person any information relating to football which the Participant has obtained by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available at that time.”

Trippier is alleged to have told close friends and family that he was moving from London to Madrid, and is thus deemed responsible for those who bet on the transfer before it was finalized.

In a statement on the FA’s website, the governing body says Trippier “denied seven alleged breaches of FA Rule E8(1)(b), which were said to occur during July 2019, and requested a personal hearing.

“An independent regulatory commission was appointed to hear the case, with four of the alleged breaches found proven and three dismissed during a subsequent personal hearing.

“The independent regulatory commission’s written reasons for its decisions and the associated sanction will be published in due course.

“The suspension, which includes all football and football-related activity, is effective worldwide from today (Wednesday 23 December 2020) following an application to FIFA,” the statement concludes.

Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Trippier can appeal this two-and-a-half-month suspension, and Atlético can take it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the hopes of getting it overturned. This timeline means Trippier will miss no international matches but up to 13 games for his club — including Atlético’s Champions League round of 16 meeting with Chelsea on Feb. 23. The first game for which the 30-year-old will be eligible to play in is the derby against Real Madrid on March 7.

Howerver, according to the Athletic’s Dermot Corrigan, an angry Atlético are insisting the FA did not communicate the punishment before announcing it publicly, and the club believes that means Trippier can continue to be selected. Atleti risk sanctions from FIFA if this happens.

This is obviously a large blow on both Trippier and the rest of the squad considering how much of an impact the defender has had this season. He has played every minute of every game between LaLiga and the Champions League, and his replacement(s) — Šime Vrsaljko and Ricard Sánchez — are unproven this season. As it stands, Diego Simeone will be without his regular right back for the next ten weeks, but there may be more developments ahead.