FIVE professional footballers are preparing to appeal convictions for betting on their own match.

The players, including ex-Liverpool and Everton hopefuls, will plead their cases in front of the Football Association next week.

At hearings in July and August, Accrington Stanley captain Peter Cavanagh, three of his teammates and a Bury player were found guilty of gambling on Accrington’s League Two match against Bury in May last year. Bury won the match 2-0.

Defender Cavanagh, from Bootle, who was convicted last of the five, was barred from the field for eight months and fined £3,500.

His barrister Martin Budworth said the player will claim he was prejudged, or there was a risk of prejudice, by the panel which found him guilty.

Mr Budworth added: “We are saying they failed to apply the standard of proof properly and the sanction was disproportionate and excessive.”

The Manchester-based litigation specialist is also representing Jay Harris and Robbie Williams.

Williams – a former Liverpool FC schoolboy and Southport FC player – was suspended for eight months and fined £3,500. Ex-Everton academy player Harris was banned for a year and fined a total of £5,500.

David Mannix and Andrew Mangan, who were also caught up in the scandal, have different legal representation.

Mannix, who left Liverpool FC in January 2007, was given a 10-month ban and fined £4,000.

Liverpool-born Mangan, who was playing for Bury, was banned for five months and fined £2,000.

All five players will say their punishment was disproportionate.