Uh oh, football’s puritans are riled up today. They think the sport might have been brought into disrepute during last night’s FA Cup tie between Sutton and Arsenal. Why? Because Sutton’s substitute goalkeeper, the gloriously fat Wayne Shaw, ate a pie on the subs bench during the match. Shaw’s stunt — which amused anybody with a sense of humour — may have broken the FA’s gambling laws, we are told, because Sun Bets, who had sponsored Sutton for the game, had offered 8-1 that Shaw would indeed be seen eating a pie during the match.
Shaw had heard of the bet before the game. Rather than take offence that people were laughing at his obesity (the correct response in bore-bore land), he decided it would be more amusing to take a meat and potato pie from the club canteen and wolf it down from the subs bench. ‘Bit of banter,’ he has called it.
But banter offends people who take sport too seriously. Some humourless reporters have decided that Shaw’s silly stunt a) undermined the nobility of non-league Sutton’s battle against Arsenal’s collection of superstars and b) was potentially corrupt because of the Sun Bets offer. Sutton’s manager has felt compelled to express his disapproval of the act. And the BBC’s Richard Conway has taken to Twitter to declare he is investigating:Questions put to The FA over this. Awaiting a response. Worth remembering the governing body has its own "official betting partner".
— Richard Conway (@richard_conway) February 21, 2017
Breaking: Sutton's pie-eating keeper Wayne Shaw to be investigated by FA over potential betting rule breaches.
— Richard Conway (@richard_conway) February 21, 2017
Come off it, Conway. This is, at best, false controversy designed to generate internet clicks because Shaw has already become a social media sensation. At worst, it is an idiotic and pompous reaction to a fun story. This particular ‘novelty bet’ had a £5 cap, so the most anybody could win would be £40. If gambling companies are going to offer such bets on silly and obviously easily rigged occurrences, nobody can complain when the silly and easily rigged occurrence occurs.
Perhaps some of Shaw’s mates did know about the bet and perhaps they took advantage of it to make less than 100 quid — but then when you think about the amount Wayne Shaw and his pals probably earn compared to, say, the £140k-a-week salary Theo Walcott, who scored last night, then it becomes hard to begrudge them.
Gambling generates millions of pounds for football every week — as anybody who has ever seen Sky Sports advertising will realise — and there are lots of quite serious issues to do with players betting and matches being fixed. But this was just fun. So — let Wayne Shaw eat pie. And let others bet on him eating pie.
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