Former Man United superstar punished for breaking betting rules

Ex-Man United midfielder Paul Scholes [Courtesy]

Paul Scholes has been hit with an £8,000 fine and warned over his future conduct after admitting breaking Football Association betting rules.

Manchester United legend Scholes admitted that he placed 140 bets on football matches between 17 August 2015 and 12 January 2019, during the time when he was director of Salford City.

None of the bets concerned matches involving the newly-promoted League Two side.

However, according to the FA, eight of those bets involved Manchester United, at a time where both Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt were employed and one bet was placed on Valencia at a time when Gary Neville and Phil Neville were in situ.

All are business associates of Scholes due to Salford City, while FA rules prevent anyone working within the game from gambling on football.

Scholes also placed eight bets on competitions Salford had taken part in, including the FA Cup, albeit after they had been knocked out.

A Scholes statement declared: “I accept last week’s ruling. I would like to apologise and I understand and fully accept the fine imposed by the FA.

"It was a genuine mistake and was not done with any deliberate intention to flout the rules.

“I wrongly believed that as long as there was no personal connection between me and any of the matches that I bet upon then there would be no issue.

"However I understand now that this is not the case and I should have taken steps to verify this at the time.”

Scholes has most recently been involved in football as manager of Oldham Athletic.

He lasted just 31 days as Oldham boss, taking charge of just seven matches before his exit on March 14.

Scholes became a part-owner of Salford in 2014 alongside his aforementioned former United teammates, taking a 10 per cent stake in the League Two newcomers.