Former Manchester United and England midfielder Paul Scholes has avoided a ban after admitting to breaking the English FA's betting rules.
Scholes admitted to a charge that he had placed 140 bets on football matches between 17 August 2015 and 12 January 2019, while he was a director of Salford City.
The FA fined the 44-year-old £8,000 and asked him to contribute £1,800 towards the cost of the tribunal while he has also been warned over his future conduct.
Scholes made an apology through a statement released after the ruling: "I would like to apologise and I understand and fully accept the fine imposed by the FA," said Scholes.
"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."
Paul Scholes made 8 bets involving Man Utd
Scholes was an 11-time Premier League winner with Manchester United and he was capped 66 times by England. He spent 31 days in charge of Oldham Athletic before resigning on March 14 while he has a 10% stake in League Two side Salford City.
Part of the FA's ruling reads:
- 8 bets involved Manchester United FC, where PS had been a player until the 2012-13 season. He remains acquainted with Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, who were working at Manchester United at the time of the bets
- 1 bet was on Valencia beating Barcelona, at a time when PS's Salford associates and friends Gary and Philip Neville were working at Valencia
- 8 bets involved FA Cup matches. The bets were made after Salford had been knocked out of the Cup.
An independent regulatory commission found no evidence that Scholes was in a position to influence these games.
Overall, the bets placed by Scholes totalled £26,159 and he made a net profit of £5,831.
