January 24, 2023 9.00 pm This story is over 24 months old

Former Lincoln City player banned for betting on Imps games while at club

He has already served his ban, though
Chris Maguire holding off a challenge during an FA Cup tie with Bowers & Pitsea. | Photo: Lincoln City FC
By Local Democracy Reporter

Ex-Lincoln City winger Chris Maguire has been banned from football for six weeks after multiple betting breaches were found by the FA.

The 34-year-old, who played for Lincoln City between 2021 and 2022, was initially fined £750 by an independent regulatory commission, after he’d been found to have breached FA rule E8 around betting.

The rule states that a participant shall not bet, either directly or indirectly, or instruct, permit, cause or enable any person to bet on the result, progress, conduct, or any other aspect of any football match, or any matter concerning football in the world.

That verdict was appealed by the FA and changed to a six-week ban, which will not affect Maguire in the present as it backdates to November 22, 2022 – meaning he has already served the six weeks.

He was initially charged with placing 52 bets between March 17, 2017 and February 12, 2022, with the charges brought his way while he was at Lincoln City.

The Imps suspended Maguire after this revelation, but the charges have since been reduced to 10 charges following the request of a personal hearing by the player.

According to the BBC, within those 10 charges were four bets made on Lincoln City to win a match while he was at the club, as well as three in 2016-17 for his club at that time, Oxford United.

Maguire was then made a free agent by mutual consent in September 2022 after leaving Lincoln City, and he is currently without a club after a proposed move to Hartlepool United collapsed last winter.

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