Ian Black has apologised to his teammates and the Rangers supporters for placing a bet against his side.
The midfielder was banned for 10 games by the Scottish Football Association for contravening the rules on football betting, which included one wager that Rangers would draw with East Stirlingshire last season, as part of an accumulator. Black admitted yesterday that he was "fortunate" not to be sacked but also that other players have breached the same rules.
In an interview on the Rangers website, Black acknowledged that the £5 accumulator bet last season almost cost him his career at Ibrox. He thanked the manager, Ally McCoist, and board for standing by him, and admitted that he deserved the SFA punishment, which involved an immediate three-game ban, with the other seven matches suspended until the end of the season.
Black could not, however, offer a convincing explanation for his decision to bet against his own team, one of three occasions he did this during the past seven years. The SFA had evidence of Black gambling on 160 matches in total during that time, but it is the ones against his own teams - Black has also played for Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the seven years in question - that are the most damning.
"Looking back, I wasn't thinking at all," he said. "A small bet, £5, there was no thought in it. It was a silly bet and I'm paying for it now. But I scored the goal to beat that bet [he put Rangers 3-2 in front]. People are saying they can't trust me, but people who know me and the supporters who watch every week know that I give 100% every game, even in training.
"I broke the rule and I deserved the punishment. There was no thought; I shouldn't have done it. There are a lot of players out there still doing it, I could name them, but I'm not going to do that. It would be harsh to see anybody else coming down with . . . the amount of investigation that the SFA went through, revealing to me every bet I've made since I opened the account six or eight years ago.
"I've got a second chance for a silly bet that I put on. It's up to me to repay them as well as the supporters."
Black has apologised already to his teammates as well as the Ibrox coaching staff, while the Rangers fans were immediately supportive when the player was charged with breaching the rules. As well as affecting his professional career, Black's indiscretion also had consequences for his private life, given the scrutiny that followed the charges being revealed.
"It's affected me off the pitch, [with] people judging me, and I'm going to have to be big enough and come out stronger," he said. "It got to the point where I had reporters knocking at the door while my daughter was in the house. She's at school and kids nowadays can't always be too nice. I put my hands up, I'm serving my punishment for it."
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