The England manager Sam Allardyce has severed his ties with the football gambling firm My Club Betting after it emerged that the company’s managing director had taken a similar company into liquidation four years ago.
Allardyce, who was confirmed as successor to Roy Hodgson with the national side last month, had been a brand ambassador for and held shares in the betting company, which promises rewards for grassroots sports clubs. The Sun has revealed that the firm’s MD, Neil Riches, had overseen a similar venture with a company called Worldlink which lost investors up to £4m when it folded in 2012.
The Sun’s investigation found that Riches had paid himself a bonus of £1,076,485 on top of his £223,500 salary, with Worldlink Group PLC’s creditors owed £4.3m when the company went into liquidation.
Allardyce has now moved to distance himself from Riches’ follow-up venture, My Club Betting, for whom he had agreed to work and had promoted on television in his role as a pundit. “The reason I joined My Club Betting was because I am so passionate about grassroots sport,” he told The Sun. “We want to give our youngsters the best chance to do well in whatever sport they choose and the idea of this company is that 20% of the profits go towards that cause which is very close to my heart.
“But I had no idea about the background to the company which has been revealed by this investigation. In view of the revelations about Worldlink I cannot continue to promote the My Club Betting site and I will be giving up my shares.”
The Football Association was already examining the appropriateness of Allardyce continuing in his role as a brand ambassador for the company which he had assumed in December last year when in charge of Sunderland.
