Former Man City analyst handed FA ban for betting breaches

A former Manchester City analyst has been handed a 12-month ban from football after placing over 450 bets, including wages against the clubs where he worked.

Richard Bredice was charged by the FA with betting on matches and transfers during his time at City, where he worked for six years between 2013 and 2019, and Burnley where he has been since 2022. Bredice worked at Anderlecht under Vincent Kompany in the years between before following the manager to Turf Moor.

Bredice made a profit of £2,350 from the 456 bets placed that were highlighted by the FA, with 67 of those involving City or Burnley while he was employed there that brought a profit of £2,162. These included betting against City to lose matches, such as the FA Cup match at Chelsea in 2016 when Manuel Pellegrini played five youngsters and the Champions League game at Shakhtar in 2017 that saw Phil Foden's full senior debut.

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Twelve of the bets were described by the FA as "inside information breaches" as they related to transfers - either current players staying or leaving, or new arrivals. These included stakes of £750 at 1/2 that delivered £375 in profit and £515.62 at 8/11 that also brought £375 profit.

Given that some of the bets were against his own team to lose, the FA Commission ruled that a ban between six months and life was appropriate. It was agreed that Bredice's actions had undermined the integrity of the game but that most of the bets were relatively small and there had been co-operation with the investigation; a 12-month ban, with six months suspended, was decided on.