Morton boss Imrie among 14 players charged with breaking betting rules

Morton manager Dougie Imrie is among 14 players and coaches to be charged with breaking Scottish FA rules on betting.

The governing body’s regulations ban anyone active in Scottish football from betting on the game at any level. The Scottish FA compliance officer has now issued notices of complaint to a number of individuals across the game for rule breaches dating from last season in some cases, to as far back as 2011 in Imrie’s case.

At that point, the current Morton boss was a player for Hamilton Accies and he has also been charged with breaking the strict rules on at least five occasions between 2011 and 2019.

A Morton statement read: “Greenock Morton can today confirm that it has received a Notice of Complaint from the Scottish FA Compliance Officer relating to alleged historic breaches of its gambling rules by our first team manager, Dougie Imrie.

“The Notice relates to incidents between 2011 and 2019 while Dougie was a player.

“The club and Dougie have cooperated fully with the SFA throughout the investigation and will continue to do so. Dougie will be providing written submissions in response to the Notice in the coming days.

“Dougie will have the full backing and support of the Greenock Morton board during this process.

“Once written submissions have been provided to the SFA, we will provide a further update to supporters.”

Aiden Sopel (Elgin City), Ashley Ballam (Strathspey Thistle), Bryan Gilfillan (Threave Rovers), Conor O’Keefe (Elgin City), Darryl McHardy (Elgin City), Gavin Swankie (Arbroath), Gordon Young (Cove Rangers), James McGowan (Albion Rovers), Matthew Cooper (Elgin City), Rabin Omar (Stirling Albion), Robert Scott (Deveronvale), Shane Sutherland (Inverness Caledonian Thistle) and Thomas McHale (Elgin City) are the other individuals called to account by the governing body.

Though a number of those charged play for Elgin or have a previous association with the club, match-fixing is not considered to be an issue.

Elgin City published a brief statement on the club website that read: “We’ve been advised of the Notices of Complaint by the SFA. We will speak to our players, our lawyers and the SFA in order to determine the most appropriate way to proceed, and if necessary we will issue a further statement in due course.”

The Scottish FA’s Judicial Panel Protocol rule 31 states: “No club, official, team official or other member of team staff, player, match official or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA shall gamble in any way on a football match.”