A PROFESSIONAL footballer from Mid Cheshire has been banned for 10 months and fined £4,000 for breaching betting rules.
Chester City midfielder David Mannix, 23, is one of four players disciplined by the Football Association after an 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 FC 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 played 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 or 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.
Chester's Jay Harris, who was then at Accrington, has been banned for a year and fined £5,000.
His then team-mate Robert Williams received a 10-month ban and ex-Bury player Andrew Mangan was banned for five months.
The case against another Accrington player, Peter Cavanagh, will be heard at a later date.
