Arsenal news: FA looking into yellow card after ‘suspicious betting patterns’ | Football | Sport
Betting on very specific outcomes in football, such as the awarding of yellow cards, is known as ‘spot betting’ and has caused concern to governing bodies.
That is because it is indivudual players who can affect those markets, such as conceding a corner or receiving a yellow card in a given period of time.
It is much harder for a player to influence ‘regular betting’ such as the result of a match.
As first reported by The Athletic, a yellow card awarded to an Arsenal player during a Premier League match earlier this season is being looked into by the FA. It is not a formal investigation as this stage.
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An FA spokesperson said: “The FA is aware of the matter in question and is looking into it.”
The Athletic claim to know the identity of the individual but have agreed to not disclose their name for privacy reasons.
They continue that the referee of the game in question is not under investigation.
Spot betting is not believed to be so much of an issue in the top-flight of English football due to the amount of money that players earn. However, it is known to cause issues around the world.
Arsenal have had a week’s break after their North London Derby clash with Tottenham was postponed at their request.
Mikel Arteta’s side are understood to have had around 14 players absent through injury, positive COVID-19 cases, and those on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.
However, some stars have returned to training this week and the EFL Cup fixture against Liverpool is expected to go ahead.
Arteta was not keen to disclose team news ahead of the game on Thursday evening.
“I can’t and I don’t want to because I don’t want to give anything away, I’m sorry,” the Spaniard said on Wednesday. “There are issues and those issues haven’t been resolved that’s why we couldn’t play the last game. But as you can understand we want to keep that internal.”
