Can footballers bet on football games?

Question

I was sat down having my lunch and wondered if footballers can bet on games. If so, can they bet on games they're playing? Can they bet against games they're playing? Can their family bet for/against their games? What are the rules?

Answer 1

The Football Association (FA) had a blanket ban - no players were allowed to bet on any football matches. Any player found breaching this faced fines and a ban from matches.

The rules were relaxed several years ago and now players are allowed by the FA to bet on matches on which they have "no direct influence". They are not allowed to bet on matches involving their club, or in which they are playing.

The FA rules for the 2007-08 cover this in section 8 of Conduct:

8 (a) A Participant shall not, either directly or indirectly, bet, or instruct, permit or enable any person for the Participant’s benefit to bet, on the result, progress or conduct of a Match or Competition in which the Participant is participating or in which the Participant has any influence, either direct or indirect.  

(b) A Participant shall not use, or provide to any other person any information relating to football which the Participant has by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available for, or in relation to, betting.  

It shall not be a breach of the above provisions of this Rule E8, if the Participant can prove that the bet was on authorised and registered football pools.

There have been recent calls from managers and players for the FA to tighten the rules again and re-impose the blanket ban on players betting.

Answer 2

They can't be on games they're playing in

Answer 3

no, they can't

Answer 4

They aren't supposed to bet on games in which they are involved...

Answer 5

They cannot bet on any game over which they have influence....so I suppose if they weren't playing and their club was in a match, they couldn't bet on that either...seems reasonable.

Answer 6

No they can't full stop... Though many do its been known..

They state they could rig it or get a friend to rig a match there in..