Swansea City officer suspended in connection with betting violations

UK.- The English Football Association (FA) has fined Swansea City player liaison officer Huw Lake and suspended him from all football-related activities for 12 months. The sanction, which comes after a review by an Independent Regulatory Commission, is due to misconduct involving betting violations.

The FA says Lake placed 2,476 bets on football matches between April 3, 2018, and September 24, 2023. Lake will serve the ban immediately. The office was fined £1,500.

The regulatory commission had initially recommended a partially suspended ban, but the FA argued that the penalty was too lenient. Lake denied having used insider knowledge to place bets but admitted to betting on Swansea to lose. He said he couldn’t remember the specific bets and admitted that he could have had knowledge of team line-ups.

The news comes after the FA charged West Ham United’s Lucas Paquetá over betting breaches. Paqueta has until June 3 to respond to the charges. On Instagram, he denied wrongdoing and expressed surprise at the decision.