French football sanctions 35 players over betting breaches

The Ligue de Football Professionnel has handed out fines and suspensions.

France.- The governing body for French professional football, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), has sanctioned 35 football players for breaching the sport’s blanket ban on betting. The breaches of LFP and French Football Federation (FPP) regulations occurred during the 2021-2022 season.

The LFP’s Disciplinary Committee did not disclose the details of each breach. It issued a €3,000 fine to Tunisian international Wahbi Khazri, who plays for Montpellier in Ligue 1, and a €2,000 fine to Nantes midfielder Ludovic Blas. Mathis Ansar of Chamois Niortai will serve a three-game suspension with a further three game ban suspended and has been given a fine.

Souleymane Cisse, Antoine Dana and Evan Huriez will each be suspended for two games. Seven players including Kevin Boma, Djibril Lamego, Eliot Pasture and Alexandre Moliner, received a €1,000 suspended fine.

The LFP began working with the French gambling regulator Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) in the 2013-14 season and has issued sanctions on 14 occasions since then.

French gambling ombudsman received 1,373 requests for mediation in 2022

The L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has delivered its third annual report on the activities of France’s gambling ombudsman. It reports that ombudsman Denys Millet received 1,373 requests for mediation in 2022, a drop of 20.8 per cent compared to 2021.

There were 744 admissible requests compared to 629 that were deemed to be inadmissible. Some 20 per cent of them involved Winamax, down from 39 per cent in 2021 due to a lower number of repeat complaints and fewer disputes regarding welcome offers.