Leeds United's Jordan Stevens Hit With 6-Week Ban Following Breach of Betting Regulations

Leeds United midfielder Jordan Stevens has been banned from all football activity for six weeks, following a breach of the FA's betting regulations. 

The youngster was also hit with a £1,200 fine, after accepting a charge of over 59 counts of bet-placing in the last year or so, according to a statement from the FA's official spokesperson. 

It read: "Jordan Stevens has been suspended from all football and football related activity with immediate effect for a period of six weeks.

"The Leeds United player admitted a misconduct charge in relation to The FA’s Betting Rules after it was alleged that he placed 59 bets on football matches between 06 August 2018 and 27 May 2019.

"The midfielder was also fined £1,200 and full written reasons can be seen below."

In that 'written reasons' account, it was explained: "The Commission had particular regard to the 23 bets which were placed on games in competitions into which Leeds United were entered and, of those 23 bets, the five bets which were placed on games involving his own club."

Though Stevens did not play in any of those five games, they declared: "It is notable that three of the bets were placed on Leeds United to win and two were on both teams to score twice. We accept the FA’s submission that those five bets are the most serious aspect of the case."

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Later, Leeds themselves released a statement acknowledging the sanctions, but decrying the severity of the punishment.

It began: "We acknowledge the sanctions passed down by the FA to Jordan Stevens following a breach of betting regulations.

"We will support Jordan through this process, he is a young footballer who needs educating on the dangers of outside influences and how to conduct himself as a professional footballer.

"As a club we feel that banning a 19-year-old footballer from even participating in training or interacting with the club’s staff is an excessive punishment."

Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear then declared: “Whilst we fully recognise the importance of the FA's role in protecting the integrity of the game, we are hugely disappointed in the FA's choice of sanction.

“To prevent a young footballer from taking part in any football activities at such critical period of his career is a disproportionate punishment following a foolish mistake from a young player.

“We are particularly disappointed that the sanction was determined by two former professional footballers who we hoped would have had a better understanding of the impact of their decision.”