[theo_luddite]

https://www.htafc.com/news/2024/february...n-harratt/

To all those who thought he should be given a second chance, how's that working out for you?

He does appear to have rabbit droppings between his ears and whilst you wouldn't (personally) want him within a long bargepole's length of Town, what he's done is no different from Ivan Toney and dozens of other footballers "who should know better". This would be the same Ivan Toney that several other Prima Donna League clubs are seemingly willing to hold their noses and stick ~£100m on the end of their bargepoles to prise him out of Brentford this summer. He'll likely be back in England's squad pretty darned soon too.

Both been caught, admitted to what they've done, been punished and no doubt will have to (or had to) attend an FA sanctioned course too.

What the mechanism is for the FA finding out about this in the first place never seems to get explained. Nearly always, it's been going on for several years. The Bookies clearly aren't shopping them, though they might not be directly placing the bets either. Whilst most "addicts", if that's what we might want to label them as, will find ways to try and hide what they are doing. Few can ever keep a "big win" quiet for long though and if they are spending more than they are earning then that will show up sooner or later somewhere in their lifestyle too. Most professional sports folk were never top of the class at school in anything academic, so they aren't the shiniest tools in the box as adults either. No reason to lock them up and throw away the keys though.