A FORMER footballing prodigy from Mid Cheshire is facing the sack from Chester City after being found guilty of breaching betting rules.
David Mannix, 23, has been banned for 10 months and fined £4,000 by the Football Association – and is now likely to get the boot from his club.
The ex-Liverpool FC trainee was one of four players disciplined last week after an FA investigation centred on Accrington Stanley’s League Two game against Bury in May 2008.
Mannix, who went to St Nicholas Catholic High School in Hartford, rose to prominence with Winsford junior side Over Three before Liverpool scouts spotted his potential and took him to Anfield.
He was charged by the FA in April over allegations he bet £4,000 on Accrington, who he was playing for at the time, to lose. Bury won the match 2-0.
Nicholas Stewart QC, chairman of the independent FA regulatory commission which carried out the investigation, said in a statement there were ‘serious concerns that the outcome of the match may have been fixed’.
Under FA rules, players, managers and coaching staff are prohibited from betting on the result or progress of any match or competition in which they are participating or have any direct or indirect influence over.
Mannix’s City team-mate Jay Harris, who played for Accrington against Bury, has been banned for a year and fined £5,000.
Chester FC managing director Bob Gray said: “They have to go and it is as simple as that. If it’s a sackable offence, we will sack them.”
