FIFA HAS SUSPENDED Kieran Trippier’s 10-week ban for breaching betting rules, freeing the England international to play for his club Atletico Madrid pending appeal.
The 30-year-old was barred from any football activity by the English Football Association last week, ruling him out for at least 13 matches for the Spanish league highflyers.
Fifa’s decision taken late on Saturday allows Trippier to return to play for Diego Simeone’s side until the appeal is heard at a crucial period of the season.
They are lying second in La Liga, just one point behind Real Madrid but have games in hand and can regain the summit later today.
Last week the FA banned him until 28 February with a £70,000 fine after being found guilty of charges surrounding his move from Tottenham to Atletico.
One of England’s standout performers in their run to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, he denied the seven charges.
The alleged offences took place in July 2019 around the time he completed his transfer from Tottenham to Atletico for a fee in the region of £20million.
Fifa’s temporary lifting of the suspension pending the appeal was initiated by Atletico, who felt it unfair the player would miss a large chunk of Atletico’s matches but none for England.
Trippier could now be eligible to turn out for Atletico in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash with Chelsea on 23 February.
As Atletico prepared their next move – “we are considering all options,” a spokesman told AFP – Trippier returned to training but is not available for today’s trip to Alaves.
I bet he’s relieved
One rule for them and all that
La liga has taken a very strong stance against gambling, shirt sponsorship etc. All is now banned from next season. Is this fifa and the gambling sector getting some retaliation in??
So what actually happened here? Paper article I read suggested he told some friends he was joining Atleti & they used that information to bet on his next club this profiting from the situation
@Damien Byrne: that’s exactly it. He came to Madrid to speak to the club, obviously a deal was struck. Next he started house hunting and the only issue is whether it was the agent, a landlord, or a friend who leaked the story. Bets piled on for 48 hours in the UK and that was that. Maybe he told his cousin or his agent told his cousin? It’s insane to think he is suspended from football due to an unrelated business losing one millionth of their profits… Madness.
@Finn Ruari: easy solution
Ban gets on player’s activities, games played in and transfers, and then u will see this stop
On the other hand ….. feck the bookies