Chris Maguire Suspended over Betting Breaches

His ban was backdated to November 22, 2022, so is now considered as fully served.

A Rollercoaster of Allegations

Maguire was initially fined £750 and received a warning from an independent regulatory commission for breaking the Football Association’s (FA) E8 rule, which concerns every Association participant, and relates to strictly banning both direct and indirect betting on FA matches. However, parts of the original charges were appealed by the FA.

Maguire was betting on his own teams to win, so thanks to some unclear wording in the rules and the personal hearing he was granted after partially admitting to some of the breaches, he received his six-week ban, which – after the backdate – effectively lets him resume his soccer activities and continue his professional career.

All in all, the initial charges against Maguire were for more than 50 bets placed between March 2017 and February 2022. The charge was made during his time at the professional association soccer club Lincoln City. He joined Lincoln in July 2021, and the club had to suspend him over the alleged betting rules breaches.

The number was later reduced to 10 charges, which boiled down to Maguire betting twice for Oxford to win, during his play for them in the 2016-17 season, and four bets placed for Lincoln to win in the 2021-22 season. Maguire either partially admitted or denied the remaining charges, but it was probably not going to change the eventual outcome by much either way.

Joining a Long List of Players

All of this happened at a very unfortunate time for Maguire, unfortunately. He was supposed to move to Hartlepool United, following his suspension from Lincoln. However, Hartlepool’s manager – Keith Curle – halted the process back in October 2022, saying that the contract was off the table, and up for re-negotiation only after the allegations against Maguire were sorted.

Another soccer player who had his career development threatened by betting rules breaches was Brentford’s Ivan Toney. The striker was charged with more than 230 breaches spanning almost four years, and in all the stirring and investigation, it cost him his spot at the World Cup, which recently concluded, crowning Argentina the world champion.

Joshua King – a York City FC player at the time – was also under scrutiny over more than 130 breaches of the betting rules. He was suspended and fined as a result. Another player that made headlines for breaching betting rules was Kieran Trippier, with his name not exhausting the list of players with similar misconducts by any stretch of the word, unfortunately.