When we told of the sports betting news last week that the SPL were investigating a player being sent off deliberately, you immediately felt the perpetrators weren’t going to have much of a Christmas. Today’s news will mean that those involved will feel even worse at what they’ve done.
The Scottish Football Association (SFA) have decided that the issue at hand is important enough for them to chime in playing the bagpipes and eating haggis, as they start to investigates the issue. It has got to this stage as an unnamed bookmaker added to the information already gleamed by Blue Square.
A decision on what to do with the Motherwell player involved, Steve Jennings, needs to be made before 1 January as this is when his three-match ban for the sending off will be up. There are a couple of options available to the league, though neither will be popular with Jennings.
They could urge the club to put the player on gardening leave until the issue is resolved, which is likely to be the outcome that Jennings himself favours. The other scenario that could be acted out would involved the league suspending the player indefinitely, effectively meaning Jennings can’t play for anyone. Whether he can play football down the park with his friends is another matter, although since this scandal broke it’s unlikely he’ll be moving in the same circles in future.
Jennings should look at it this way though – at least he doesn’t have to worry about the hangover on New Year’s Day
