Daniel Sturridge has been banned from football until the end of the season after the Football Association successfully appealed against his original suspension of two weeks for breaching betting rules.
Last July an independent commission found Sturridge, 30, breached regulations around insider information and suspended the former Liverpool and England striker for two weeks, before the season had started, and fined him £75,000.
At the time the FA made clear its intention to appeal against what it described as an “unduly lenient” sanction, and a regulatory commission has now found that the original ban “misapplied The FA’s Rules in relation to the use of inside information”.
Hours before the FA had revealed the appeal board’s decision to increase the ban to four months, running until 18 June 2020, and to double his fine to £150,000, Trabzonspor announced his three-year contract with the Turkish league leaders had been terminated by mutual consent.
In a statement, the FA said: “Daniel Sturridge has been suspended from all football and football-related activity from today until the end of 17 June 2020.
“Following an appeal by The FA of the previous findings of the independent Regulatory Commission in this case, an independent Appeal Board has found that the Regulatory Commission misapplied The FA’s Rules in relation to the use of inside information and made findings of fact which could not be sustained. As a result, the Appeal Board has found proven two further charges which were originally dismissed. Other factual findings of the Regulatory Commission were left undisturbed.
“In relation to the sanction, the Appeal Board agreed with The FA that the penalty originally imposed on Mr Sturridge was unduly lenient and therefore increased his effective playing ban from two weeks to four months. The Appeal Board also doubled the fine to £150,000.
“The written reasons in this matter are available below and provide considerable detail in relation to all the charges and the Appeal Board’s determinations of them. As will be clear, The FA takes any form of betting misconduct and the provision of inside information very seriously.
“FIFA has confirmed that the suspension will be of worldwide effect.”
Sturridge was released by Liverpool last summer after scoring 67 goals in 160 appearances during a six-year spell at the Premier League club. He began his career at Manchester City before joining Chelsea in 2009 and has also had loan spells at Bolton and West Brom.
He also scored eight goals in 26 senior appearances for England after making his debut under Fabio Capello against Sweden in 2011.
