Players' union wants concrete evidence

ST PATRICK'S BETTING ALLEGATIONS: THE HEAD of the Irish footballers' trade union, the PFAI, has reacted angrily to decisions taken by St Patrick's Athletic and the FAI to investigate suggestions that a small number of players may have been involved in betting against their team recently.

Speaking from Chile, where he is attending the annual congress of the international representative body for players, Fifpro, Stephen McGuinness said he found it remarkable the club and association chose to react publicly to what he dismissed as mere "rumour".

"The FAI are supposed to be running an investigation and St Pat's are supposed to be running an investigation, but on the basis of what?" he asked. "The players were entitled to some form of due process before anybody started talking about this.

"If it's proven then fair enough, I'll be the first to condemn it and nobody from our side will complain when the player in question has his contract terminated. But in the meantime everyone should be a little more careful about what allegations they're throwing around. At this stage I'm sick and tired of players being fingered for this sort of thing without a shred of evidence.

"What I want to know," he continued, "is who is actually making any allegations, because all I've seen so far is references to rumours without any hint of anything concrete to back them up. The bookies seem to be getting plenty of publicity and people are happy to assume that players are in the wrong, but nobody's actually coming up with any evidence.

"This sort of stuff needs to be knocked on the head until some proof is provided that somebody, somewhere, has actually done something wrong."

McGuinness was commenting after the FAI joined St Patrick's Athletic in saying that an investigation into the matter would be conducted. Speaking yesterday, however, league director Fran Gavin said the game's governing body has requested information from St Patrick's and was awaiting the club's reply.

He said he had never known of players to be involved in rigging games or betting.

But others closely associated with the league suggest that there would be a small number of players at pretty much every club who would bet on games. Doing so on a game in which they are involved could, if it were to be proven, result in a life ban.

A source close to the players at St Patrick's, however, described the idea that any games might have been thrown as "a load of garbage", adding that the story is "something about nothing".

The club's chief executive confirmed yesterday he had consulted the Garda regarding the manner in which any investigation might be conducted, but, he said, nothing had been done yet in relation to the matter as he had been too busy reacting to media inquiries.

In the meantime, McGuinness called on those behind the rumours to put up or shut up.

"If any of this turns out to be true then, rest assured, it won't be condoned by the players' union. But at the moment absolutely nobody is making an actual allegation, much less putting forward anything that might pass for evidence.

"If somebody does have evidence then fine, let them turn it over to the FAI who can do something about it."