Bunfight At The FA Corral

The FA have banned former Frome Town manager Nick Bunyard from football until the summer of 2019, but the man in question appears to have no intention of going quietly.

A FA statement claimed Bunyard had bet against his own team 45 times, whilst manager of both Frome and fellow Southern League side Paulton Rovers, over a 19 month period to April 2016. A further 52 bets not involving his clubs were also recorded.

Officials, players, managers, and all employees at clubs at Southern League level and above are banned from betting on football played anywhere in the world at any time. The rule came in on August 1st, 2014. Bunyard's breaches of the rule started six weeks later.

Bunyard, 36, says he is now retired from management, taking a lengthy swipe at the FA in a Facebook post and posting part of the written charges from the FA to Twitter. The charges name Paulton's goalkeeper as having received text messages from Bunyard trying to sign him after he was suspended by the FA, also noting Paulton's Secretary being involved in the reporting of the act to the authorities.

Bunyard has made swipes about 'rats and snakes' in his social media comments. Paulton officials didn't have much choice in the matter, especially considering their Chairman has been a Southern League board member for the past seven years. You can't selectively uphold the rules, we get told that repeatedly. The FA demanded they comply with their investigation - as a Paulton club statement attests - and that the FA had already received information regarding Bunyard's alleged ongoing activities.

The ban also comes with a fine, £3000, which presumably will go unpaid with Bunyard's retirement. He says he's 'never taken a wage' as a manager of either club and hinting that the 45 bets on his own side were actually just eight. He also says he lost many of the bets, only placing the money due to inside knowledge on injury crises but seeing his side draw or win on half the occasions he claimed actually happened. He hasn't provided proof of his responses, and the FA are unlikely to confirm or deny them.

The FA rule on betting is draconian, especially at this low level, but zero tolerance is probably the only route when suspicions of match fixing in football around the world is at an all time high.

However the length of time to resolve the charge - seven months - is unnecessarily long for the person involved and the club. It is difficult to 'move on' if justice is not done swiftly and, as both the club and Bunyard point out, it would have been resolved much quicker at a higher level.

The level of the fine, however, is frightening. Frome Town's current average attendance is 242, which means Bunyard's fine is the equivalent of the takings of two matches for the club.

I doubt a manager at a Premier League club would get such a hefty sanction.