A LIVERPOOL-BORN professional footballer was banned from playing and fined after betting on his own team to lose.

Peter Cavanagh was barred from the field for eight months and will have to pay a £3,500 penalty.

Defender Cavanagh, who captained Accrington Stanley FC, bet on his side’s League Two match against Bury FC in May, 2008.

The Football Association announced the punishment after an independent regulatory commission hearing.

Cavanagh was one of five players caught betting on their own team’s match.

Regulatory commission chairman Nicholas Stewart, QC, said: “These were repeated deliberate breaches of the Football Association’s betting rules which are vital to maintain confidence in the integrity of the game. These are serious offences by a club captain and therefore must be punished by a substantial period of suspension of eight months together with a fine of £3,500.”

In July, the four other players were banned for between five months and a year for betting on the outcome of the same match.

Three were with Stanley at the time and the other at Bury, who won the game 2-0.