THIS is personal. This is also business.

The gambling problem in football has the potential to destroy individual lives. It also has the capacity to damage the brand of global football plc.

Kevin Twaddle, who played for seven professional clubs including Motherwell, can speak of the private havoc a gambling addiction can inflict on a life.

The football authorities' attitudes to placing a bet may have been influenced by such private turmoil but they are driven by a sound business imperative. Gambling taints the integrity of the game. If the public believes results are being manipulated, then the sport loses its very reason for existing.

There is no suggestion that Steve Simonsen, the 35-year-old Rangers goalkeeper, suffers from a gambling addiction or that he tried to influence matches. This seems a simple case of a player putting on football coupons.

This would be regarded as harmless, even mandatory, in the wider football community.

So what is the problem?

Twaddle points out that there has been an explosion of footballers seeking help for gambling to excess, even to damnation. He adds: "When I was in the depths of troubles with gambling, and without a shadow of doubt, I would have stopped at nothing. I would have thrown games, I would have given away penalties, I would have taken part in any scam. My gambling was horrific. It took me to places where I did not want to go.''

The zero tolerance of betting on football seems to come as a surprise to some professionals. This being addressed by initiatives from PFA Scotland. Twaddle has travelled throughout Scotland explaining to players what they are allowed to do. And pointing out that help is available if they feel their gambling has become a problem.

In his autobiography, Twaddle estimates he lost £1m. But the 43-year-old says bluntly: "For the person mired in gambling addiction, it is not about the money, it is what it does to you, what it makes acceptable.''

He believes there is a "gambling epidemic'' in the sport. He adds: "It is quite frightening the scale of the problem among experienced pros and the young lads are highly vulnerable.''

It is this vulnerability that football fears. It may be caused by addiction, it may be simply a product of greed. But it makes players susceptible to the advances of the game fixers.

This may include manipulating matches in terms or results but is more likely to concern the timing of the first throw-in, the number of bookings, the time of the first foul or other incidents that come under the term of "spot" betting.

FIFA has become increasingly concerned at reports of ''suspect'' matches and ''unusual betting patterns''. This is, at least, part of the reason the SFA seeks to police closely all betting on football by footballers.

The scope for abuse is obvious. But there is a prevailing perception that, first, putting on a Saturday coupon does no harm and, second, how can the authorities control the betting habits of an entire workforce.

Frank McGarvey, the former Celtic and St Mirren striker, has admitted having problems with gambling in the past but believes the authorities face an impossible task in eradicating it from the game.

''In my experience, most footballers like a bet,'' he says. "Many like to bet on football because they think they know about it. They may be privy to inside info from mates about the injury situation at a club and so on. But, then again, the bookies have their ways of finding out information.''

He adds: "I just do not see how it can be stopped. I mean, a footballer can set up an account in his wife's name or whatever of get someone to place his bet for him. What can the SFA or anyone else do about that? I believe they may have overplayed their hand.''

Both McGarvey and Twaddle know that many footballers have more time and more money than many in the wider workforce but both state unequivocally that gambling addiction is a curse that strikes far beyond the game. ''Accountants, dentists, lawyers, brickies, joiners, doctors...I know people from all these jobs who need help with their gambling. This is not just a football problem or a problem that is more common among players ,'' says Twaddle.

But football is a profession that faces the two-pronged issue: the personal and the business. Twaddle addresses the former by sharing his experience with players at clubs throughout Scotland.

"I do not preach to anybody. I just tell them what happened to me and hope that helps them. I can also point them to further help,'' says Twaddle, who points out that clubs and the unions are both keen address problems among players, particularly those at the start of their careers.

"But I know of players who have horrific problems,'' he adds.

On the business level, he accepts that gambling presents a potentially catastrophic threat to the game. "We all know there have been a series of police investigations and we have all heard the stories about fixed games or even guys cashing in on the first throw-in or whatever.

"I know when I was gambling it would have been the easiest thing for me to have a winning bet on the time of the first bye-kick. At Motherwell, Billy Davies used to give the ball to me at kick-off with the instruction to kick it long so we can start the play far up the park. It would have been very easier just to kick it too long.''

This sums up the both the personal and business problems facing the football authorities. They have a problem of their own: a comprehensive policing of gambling is difficult, perhaps impossible. That does not mean they should stop trying, however. It is, though, surely reasonable to propose that they must also address their relationship with bookmakers, particularly in the area of sponsorship.