JAY Harris and David Mannix are facing the sack after the disgraced Chester City duo were yesterday found guilty of breaching betting rules by the FA.
Harris has been banned for a year and fined £5,000 while Mannix has been handed a £4,000 fine and a 10-month ban for betting on Accrington Stanley to lose their League Two match with Bury on May 3, 2008.
The midfielders, who signed two-year deals with the Blues last June, were registered with Accrington at the time.
And with an FA regulatory commission expressing “serious concerns” that the game – which Bury won 2-0 – may have been fixed, Chester’s managing director Bob Gray said: “They have to go and it is as simple as that as we cannot condone players betting on their own team to get beat.
“We’re taking the right steps through our solicitors and they will get what they deserve. If it’s a sackable offence, we will sack them.”
Harris, 22, and Mannix, 23, were among a group of five players charged by the FA in April for betting on Bury to win, the others being Accrington’s Peter Cavanagh and Robert Williams and former Bury striker Andrew Mangan.
Mangan has been fined £2,000 and banned for five months while Williams has received a £3,500 fine and an eight-month ban. The case against Cavanagh will be heard at a later date.
Nicholas Stewart QC, chairman of the FA regulatory commission, said: “We have serious concerns that the outcome of the match may have been fixed, although none of the players were charged with these offences.”
Harris, while a City player, also faced a charge of placing a stake on a treble bet on the outcome of three League Two matches – Bournemouth v Chester, Bradford City v Dagenham & Redbridge and Macclesfield Town v Bury – on December 6 last year.
The charge was proven on the basis of the Bradford and Macclesfield games, but not on Chester’s trip to Dean Court. Harris was fined a further £500.
Former Accrington owner Eric Whalley, who this week joined Chester’s board, said: “I am disgusted with the players. If you were a fan who had paid £15 to watch your team regularly and you found one of the players had bet on the team to lose, what would you think? It is disgusting.”
