The Perils and Pitfalls of the FA's ‘Inside’ Information Betting Rules

Introduction

One of the vexed issues in sport is the extent to which professional athletes can discuss their careers with friends and family without falling foul of any betting or inside information rules.

The point was graphically illustrated in the case of The Football Association v Daniel Sturridge [2020] when a player was accused by the FA of passing inside information to others about his prospective transfer moves. He was banned from football for 4 months after a disciplinary investigation.

This webinar will look at the scope and interpretation of the FA’s ‘inside’ information rules.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Whether the FA’s rules were sufficiently clear and unambiguous to satisfy the principle of legal certainty in the Sturridge case
• The extent to which the information in question has to be concrete or certain in order to qualify as ‘inside’ information under the rules
• The proper meaning of using inside information ‘for or in relation to betting’
• Whether a bet needs to be laid (as opposed to merely contemplated) in order for the rules to bite
• The extent to which tribunals hearing such cases should rely on the demeanour of the witnesses, as opposed to the documentary evidence adduced by the parties

This webinar was recorded on 21st July 2021