Kieran Trippier given 10-week suspension for breaching FA betting rules

Atletico Madrid and England defender Kieran Trippier has been banned for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 for breaching betting rules, the Football Association has announced.

The 30-year-old’s worldwide ban from all football and football-related activity will run until February 28.

Trippier denied the charges, first made in May, and had a personal hearing in October.

However, the FA said that four of seven alleged breaches had been proven with three others dismissed.

An FA spokesperson said: “The Atletico Madrid defender denied seven alleged breaches of FA rule E8(1)(b), which were said to occur during July 2019, and requested a personal hearing.

“An independent regulatory commission was appointed to hear the case, with four of the alleged breaches found proven and three dismissed during a subsequent personal hearing.

“The independent regulatory commission’s written reasons for its decisions and the associated sanction will be published in due course.”

Trippier’s ban takes force with immediate effect.

The suspension will rule Trippier out of at least 14 matches for Atletico, including the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea on February 23.

The offences took place in July 2019 around the time that the former Burnley defender completed his move from Tottenham to Atletico for a fee in the region of £20million.

In a statement issued when he was first charged in May, Trippier said: “I want to make it clear that, while a professional footballer, I have at no stage placed any football-related bets or received any financial benefit from others betting.”