The British betting scandal of 1964 was a
scandal
A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...
in English
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
in which ten professional players were gaoled for offences arising from
match fixing
In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
.
History
Former Scottish youth international and
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...
,
Plymouth Argyle
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...
,
St Johnstone
St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...
and
Mansfield Town
Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...
player
Jimmy Gauld over several years systematically interfered with matches in the
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
, enticing players into
betting
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three eleme ...
on the outcome of fixed matches. It was when he learned that players at one of his former clubs – Mansfield Town – had been paid by
Tranmere Rovers
Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...
players to lose a game that Gauld first became involved in match-fixing.
In late 1962, Gauld approached
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
player
David Layne
David "Bronco" Layne (born Sheffield, 29 July 1939) is an English former footballer most famous for playing for Sheffield Wednesday and his involvement in the British betting scandal of 1964.
Playing career Rotherham United
Layne started his ...
, a former team-mate at
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...
, to identify a target game. Layne suggested that Wednesday were likely to lose their match on 1 December 1962 against
Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...
and suggested to his fellow players
Peter Swan and
Tony Kay
Anthony Herbert Kay (born 13 May 1937) is an English former footballer who became notorious after being banned from the professional game for life following the British betting scandal of 1964.
Kay played for Sheffield Wednesday before beco ...
that they ensure the outcome. The three all bet against their own side in the match, which Ipswich Town won 2–0 with two goals from
Ray Crawford
Ray Crawford (October 26, 1915 – February 1, 1996) was an American fighter ace, test pilot, race-car driver and businessman.
Biography
Born in Roswell, New Mexico, Crawford served as a U.S. Army Air Corps fighter pilot and flew the P-3 ...
. In an interview with ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' newspaper in July 2006, Peter Swan said "We lost the game fair and square, but I still don’t know what I’d have done if we’d been winning. It would have been easy for me to give away a penalty or even score an own goal. Who knows?”.
On the same day, two other matches (both in the Fourth Division) were 'fixed' by Gauld and his syndicate:
Lincoln City's home match against
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross.
Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...
(Brentford won 3-1) and
Oldham Athletic
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system.
The history of Oldham Athletic ...
's home match against
York City
York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...
(Oldham won 3-2).
The following year, Gauld's betting syndicate tried to fix the result of a match between
Bradford Park Avenue
Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club is an association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in , at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The name derived from their former hom ...
and
Bristol Rovers
Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...
(played on 20 April 1963); consequently, two Bristol Rovers players – goalkeeper
Esmond Million
Esmond Million (born 15 March 1938) is a former football goalkeeper.
Playing career
Million played for Middlesbrough from 1956 to 1962. He joined Bristol Rovers in 1962.
In April 1963, he took a £300 bribe to throw a match. The ploy failed an ...
and inside-forward
Keith Williams – were named in the ''
Sunday People
The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881.
At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...
'' as having taken bribes to 'throw' the match (which had ended in a 2–2 draw). Million and Williams were fined and banned from football for life, as was
Mansfield Town
Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...
player
Brian Phillips, who had made the initial approach to Million.
On 4 August 1963,
Ken Thomson of
Hartlepools United
Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system.
They were founded in 1908 as Har ...
confessed in the ''Sunday People'' that he had bet with Gauld's syndicate on Hartlepools United losing a game at Exeter City earlier that year (he would subsequently be banned for life by
the Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...
). A week later, Jimmy Gauld was named by the ''Sunday People'' as the 'mastermind' behind the bribes ring.
In 1964, Gauld, in search of a final "payday" after having been discovered by the ''Sunday People'', sold his story to the same newspaper for £7,000 (), incriminating the three Sheffield Wednesday players who had 'thrown' the game against Ipswich Town in December 1962. The paper broke the story on 12 April. The following Sunday, a number of other players were also named as having taken part in attempts to fix matches. Ten former or current players were finally sent for trial at Nottingham Assizes in early 1965. It would be the first time that taped evidence was admitted in an English court.
Jimmy Gauld's taped conversations were ultimately used to convict him and the other players, the
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
making it clear that he held Gauld responsible for ruining them. At the end of the trial on 26 January 1965, Gauld – described by the judge as the "central figure" of the case – received the heaviest sentence of four years in prison. Brian Phillips and
York City
York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...
wing-half
Jack Fountain were each sentenced to fifteen months' imprisonment,
Dick Beattie
Richard Scott Beattie (24 October 1936 – 15 August 1990) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in both the Scottish and English football leagues. A Scotland under-23 international, who appeared in three major f ...
of
St. Mirren received nine months',
Sammy Chapman
Samuel Edward Campbell Chapman (16 February 1938 – 24 July 2019) was a Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager.
Career
A former youth player with Manchester United, Chapman signed for Glentoran upon returning to Northe ...
of
Mansfield Town
Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...
,
Ron Howells
Ronald Gilbert Howells (12 January 1927 – 29 December 2011) was a Welsh professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was capped by Wales and played in The Football League for three clubs.
Playing career
Howells began his playing car ...
of
Walsall
Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...
and Ken Thomson each received six-month sentences while David Layne, Tony Kay and Peter Swan each received four-month sentences.
On release, Layne, Swan, Kay, Beattie, Fountain, Chapman and Howells were banned for life from any further participation in football (Gauld, Thomson and Phillips had already been banned). Thirty-three players were prosecuted, in total.
It was established that Jimmy Gauld had earned £3275 from betting on football matches and £7420 from having sold his confessions to the ''Sunday People''. Gauld died in 2004.
Aftermath
In 1971, the Football Association amended its rules to allow banned players the right of appeal after seven years. Brian Phillips successfully appealed against his ban and would lead Notts Alliance amateur side
Rainworth Miners Welfare F. C. to the final of the
FA Vase
The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...
in 1982 as their manager. He died in 2012.
Peter Swan and David Layne also successfully appealed against their bans and returned to Sheffield Wednesday in 1972. Swan later transferred to
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
and then to
Matlock Town
Matlock Town Football Club is a association football, football club based in Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock, Derbyshire, England. Nicknamed 'the Gladiators', they are currently members of the and play at Causeway Lane.
History
The club was esta ...
whom he led (as player-manager) to victory in the
FA Trophy
The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...
final of 1975. Swan resigned at the end of his second season in charge of Matlock Town, hoping to find a full-time management position elsewhere. He eventually returned as manager in November 1980, with his second spell at the club lasting just over a year after a poor run of results. Swan also had spells as manager at
Worksop Town
Worksop Town Football Club is an English football club based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. As of the 2021–22 season the team plays in the . They are nicknamed ''The Tigers'' and play their home games at Sandy Lane in Worksop.
History First clu ...
and
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level. . He later ran a pub in Chesterfield. He died after a long battle with
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
in January 2021.
David Layne did not play for Sheffield Wednesday's first team again and ended his playing career at
Hereford United
Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...
.
Sammy Chapman also returned to football, first with
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
and
Crewe Alexandra
Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...
as a coach and then with
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
as chief scout and then manager. He died in July 2019.
Dick Beattie worked in the shipyards following his release from prison. He died in 1990.
Esmond Million emigrated to Canada where he became active in professional ice hockey.
Keith Wiliams pursued his footballing career in South Africa.
Ken Thomson died of a heart attack on a golf course in 1969.
Jack Fountain died in August 2012.
Tony Kay had the highest profile of those implicated. He had been transferred to Everton in December 1962, a few weeks after the Ipswich Town v Sheffield Wednesday match and midway through the 1962–63 season. He would help Everton win the Football league title that season. He was also an England international and expected to be in Alf Ramsey's 1966 World Cup squad.
Although his life ban would be lifted in September 1973, Kay never returned to professional football. He later spent twelve years in Spain, avoiding arrest for selling a counterfeit diamond. On his return to the United Kingdom, he was fined £400. In later years, he worked as a groundsman in south east London. The greatest irony of his implication was his being named man of the match in the Ipswich Town vs Sheffield Wednesday match – the match the ''Sunday People'' newspaper accused him of having conspired to lose and which he was found guilty of having 'thrown'.
The scandal was dramatised in 1997 in a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
film ''
The Fix'', directed by
Paul Greengrass
Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.
His early film ' ...
and starring
Jason Isaacs
Jason Isaacs (born 6 June 1963) is an English actor.
Isaac's film roles include Col. Tavington in '' The Patriot'' (2000), Michael D. Steele in '' Black Hawk Down'' (2001), Lucius Malfoy in the ''Harry Potter'' film series (2002–2011), C ...
as Tony Kay,
Christopher Fulford
Christopher Fulford (born 1955) is a British actor who is best known for his supporting roles in many British TV shows, one of the earliest being punk Alex in the short lived sitcom '' Sorry, I'm A Stranger Here Myself'' (1981–82).
Career
Ful ...
as Jimmy Gauld and
Steve Coogan
Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which ...
as ''Sunday People'' journalist Michael Gabbert, whose investigative work led to the uncovering of the scandal.
See also
*
1915 British football betting scandal
The 1915 British football betting scandal occurred when a Football League First Division match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on 2 April (Good Friday) 1915 was fixed in United's favour, with players from both sides benefit ...
, a similar scandal nearly 50 years previously.
*
List of professional sportspeople convicted of crimes
This list includes sports-people who have been convicted of serious crimes (such as felonies in the United States). It comprises both professionals
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professiona ...
*
2011 Turkish football corruption scandal
References
Bibliography
Swan still reduced to tears by the fix that came unstuck, ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' 22 July 2006, p. 102, Broadbent, R.
Triumph and despair Kay's own account, ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', 4 July 2004
*
*Simon Inglis, ''Soccer in the Dock'' (Collins, 1985)
Article from ''The Independent'', 1995
{{DEFAULTSORT:1964 British Betting Scandal
History of football in England
Sports betting scandals
Association football controversies
Sports scandals in England
Mansfield Town F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Bet
Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...
Bet
Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...
Bet
Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...