The first ever survey of football’s gambling/match fixing problem has revealed that one third of players in Scotland have broken the gambling rules.
Scottish players are banned from betting on any football matters worldwide with the English authorities set to introduce the same legislation starting next season.
The cut and dried approach to football betting seemed to surprise a number of players who openly discuss betting on social networking sites such as twitter.
While gambling of any sort is banned the punishment are hardly a deterrant with Ian Black suspended for three matches despite admitting to betting on over 140 matches including some that he played in.
FIFpro, the international body of players unions, commissioned a study in eight countries which came up with a number of concerns for Stewart Regan and colleagues.
Whether cases will be looked at retrospectively remains to be seen with the most likely outcome being that a stronger message will be sent out at the start of the new season warning that the zero tolerance policy will be strictly enforced.
Last January, before the Black case, Â Birkbeck University of London carried out the survey with 32% of the players that took part in it admitting that they had broken gambling rules for Scottish football.
Among the 17 questions one asked for the three biggest reasons for match fixing with 19% of the players saying that it was easy money with little chance of being caught. 28% of players listed financial difficulties as the most likely reason to get involved in match fixing.
Another question revealed that 34% of the players wouldn’t report an approach made to fix a match.
CLICK HERE for the full survey results