1964 British betting scandal

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The British betting scandal of 1964 was a scandal in English association football in which eight professional players were jailed for offences arising from match fixing.

Player Jimmy Gauld over several years systematically interfered with matches in the football league, enticing players into betting on the outcome of fixed matches. His criminality came to light after he approached Sheffield Wednesday F.C. player David Layne, a former colleague at Mansfield Town F.C., in December 1962 to identify a new target game. Layne suggested that Wednesday were likely to lose their imminent match against Ipswich Town F.C. and proposed to his fellow players Peter Swan and Tony Kay that they ensure the outcome. The three all bet against their own side in the match.

In 1964, Gauld, in search of a final "payday", sold his story to the Sunday People for GBP7,000, incriminating the three Wednesday players. The paper broke the story on April 12. Gauld's taped conversations were ultimately to convict himself and the three Wednesday players, the judge making it clear that he held Gauld responsible for ruining the other three.

The four received jail sentences, as did Mansfield players Brian Philips and Sammy Chapman, along with Ronald Howells, Kenneth Thompson, Richard Beattie and John Fountain. On release, they were banned for life from any participation in football.

[edit] Bibliography

• "Swan still reduced to tears by the fix that came unstuck", The Times July 22, 2006, p.102, Broadbent, R.
• Triumph and despair, Kay's own account, The Observer, July 4, 2004
• Gauld biography at Swindon Town F.C. website
• The 1960s - The Kay, Swan and Layne affair
• On this day - April 12
• Johnson, N. (2006). Peter Swan: Setting the Record Straight. Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-4022-5. 

[edit] See also

• 1915 British football betting scandal, a similar scandal nearly 50 years previously.