Former Athlone Town player loses match-fixing ban appeal

The Football Association of Ireland has welcomed the decision by an Independent Arbitrator to uphold a twelve-month ban imposed on former Athlone Town player Igor Labuts.

Labuts had first been banned by the FAI disciplinary committee, and then appealed a decision to an independent disciplinary appeal committee, which upheld the original decision.

He then appealed the appeal committee's decision to an arbitrator which also found in the FAI's favour.

Both Igors Labuts and Dragos Sfrijan had been found to be in breach of three FAI rules by an Independent Disciplinary Committee on September 7, 2017. The rules breached were:

Rule 99: Bringing the Game into Disrepute 
Rule 105: Manipulating Matches
Rule 106: Betting / Gambling

The two players were subsequently banned from all football-related activities for twelve months.

On Thursday, October 4, the Independent Disciplinary Appeal Committee dismissed the appeal of Mr Sfrijan following his absence from the appeal hearing. The Independent Disciplinary Committee also rejected the appeal of Mr Labuts.

Mr Labuts, in accordance with FAI Rules, appealed the decision of the Independent Disciplinary Appeal Committee to a single arbitrator. The arbitrator heard the matter on Thursday, November 22 and a decision was reached, whereby the original decision taken by the FAI Disciplinary Committee has been upheld and the original sanction was also upheld.

The breach concerns Athlone Town's game against Longford Town in the SSE Airtricity League First Division on April 29, 2017.

The FAI said it has a zero tolerance policy to match-fixing