The head coach of Hamilton Academical F.C., Brian Rice, has faced a ban from football for ten matches following a confession that he had breached the gambling rules of the Scottish FA. However, the actual ban will be imposed immediately for only five of them, while the other five are set to be suspended for good behaviour until the summer of 2021.
Brian Rice faced accusations of violating the Scottish FA rules in each season between July 14th, 2015 and October 15th, 2019. The ruling was announced at an SFA hearing that took place in Hampden. The 56-year-old head coach of Hamilton Academical has agreed to a series of measures to provide proof that he has not committed another offence.
In order to avoid a further 5-year ban from the game, he is required to regularly attend special recovery meetings. Of course, the must not violate the Scottish FA rules any more, and on the last day of each month, he is supposed to submit a certificate proving that, within the football club’s knowledge, Hamilton has not placed a bet since October 17th, 2019.
At the time when his punishment was announced and explained, the judicial panel’s chair said that the period of suspension from football reflected the scale of the gambling rules breach that had involved a large number of low-value bets.
Football Club Says the Coach Confessed His Gambling Rules Violation
The judicial panel chair shared that Mr Rice could have been suspended for a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 16 football matches plus a monetary fine of £100,000.
The chair of the tribunal also added that the latter chose to ban the head coach of Hamilton Academical for only half of the overall sanction in order to reflect the genuine efforts that Mr Rice is considered to have made in order to stop gambling. The football club’s head coach has also expressed genuine remorse for his violation of the Scottish FA’s gambling rules, with the breach being a small-scale one.
The tribunal’s chair has also shared hopes that Mr Rice would no longer wager in violation of the Football Association’s gambling rules would avoid returning to the practice.
The football club revealed that the head coach, who has once been a midfielder at Nottingham Forest, Hibernian and Falkirk, had been open about his problem gambling and had actually self-reported the offences to the football’s governing body. Mr Rice himself shared that the wagers on football came as a lapse in statement and agreed to fully cooperate with the Scottish FA throughout the entire probe.
During Brian Rice’s absence in the upcoming matches of the club, it is the assistant manager Guillaume Beuzelin who will take charge of the team on their upcoming matches until Rice is away.
- Author
Daniel Williams
