Kieran Trippier ban for breaching betting rules is unfair and needs overturning - Diego Simeone

ByPete Hall

Updated 29/12/2020 at 15:20 GMT

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone believes the 10-week ban imposed on defender Kieran Trippier for breaching betting rules unfairly harms his side and has asked for the punishment to be overturned. The announcement of the sanction follows a lengthy investigation sparked by irregular betting patterns around the time of his move from Tottenham to Atletico Madrid in July last year.

Diego Simeone believes the 10-week ban imposed on Kieran Trippier for breaching betting rules unfairly harms his side and has asked for it to be overturned.

Tripper, who joined Atletico Madrid from Tottenham in 2019, was fined £70,000 by the FA and suspended for 10 weeks for four breaches of a rule which prevents players from providing information to others on their position which is not available in public at the time. The breaches occurred in July 2019, when Trippier moved from Tottenham to Atletico.

The England right back, 30, will miss at least 13 matches for Atletico, who are top of La Liga and challenging for their first Spanish title since 2014 and have reached the last 16 of the Champions League, where they will face Chelsea.

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"We think it's unfair and we hope it can be revised because of the damage done to Atletico," Simeone said.

Atletico obviously have absolutely nothing to do with this situation so we hope it can be re-assessed in some way, because while the FA benefits from this, Atletico is harmed by it and has nothing to do with it.

"But the circumstances are what they are and we'll have to live with it."

Trippier, who is in his second season with Atletico, has been one of the team's best players this season, playing every minute of their 19 games in La Liga and the Champions League.

Croatian full back Sime Vrsaljko is set to take Trippier's place in the team, having only played 14 minutes of first team football this season as a substitute in a recent Copa del Rey victory over minnows Cardassar.

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