The manager of the England national football team, Gareth Southgate, insisted that he would not allow gambling among players get out of control at the World Cup. According to him, England’s footballers will not put their chances of success during the World Cup in danger by letting their gambling habits affect their performance as such a thing happened at previous tournaments.
The statement of the current manager of the English national football squad came after some shocking revelations about the huge amount of gambling addictions that has spread among players made in the autobiography of the former midfielder Kieron Dyer. However, Southgate who was a player himself at the period that Dyer has talked about in the book shared his belief that the current generation of players is more responsible. Southgate explained that he was not concerned whether his players would keep their focus on the game, as he believed they would not get distracted.
As explained by the football team manager, he is not going to ban card schools or suspend his players to stay off social media at the time when the World Cup is being held. According to him, the card school still exists, but he did not take it as a serious threat.
England’s National Team Faces Major Problem Gambling Issues
Furthermore, Southgate explained that it is not possible for problem gambling behaviour among football players to be actually monitored, saying that online gambling and other types of gambling services make such addictions really hard to trace. The manager said staying realistic was the key to understanding the problem. He also shared that players who faced gambling addiction had to be provided with the right support in case that they needed help.
As mentioned earlier, the statement of the English national football squad’s manager comes a few weeks after the revelations of the former England’s midfielder Kieron Dyer about spreading gambling addiction in the national team shocked the community. According to the former player, gambling has become a serious issue among footballers, especially considering the fact that the amounts spent by the on gambling have been constantly rising.
Kieron Dyer also revealed that almost a decade and a half ago, at the quarter-finals of Euro 2004, the poor performance of the England’s national football team against the team of Portugal came as a result of the uncontrollable gambling which was happening at the time among the footballers. According to him, there were several players who gambled “behind closed doors” and lost mind-blowing amounts of money at the time.
After these claims got to the wider public thanks to the player’s autobiography, Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former manager of England’s national football squad also commented on the matter, saying that he was not aware of the problem at the time he headed the team.
- Author
Daniel Williams
