Hamilton boss Brian Rice will face a 10-match ban after admitting to gambling offences - with five games suspended.
The manager confessed his addiction earlier this month and wrote to the SFA to express his regret and own up to his issues.
Rice, 56, wrote personally to the SFA to describe the "disease" and request help after it reared its head again.
Now he will spend five away from the touchline after the offences.
Speaking outside Hampden, Rice said: "I'm relieved it's over. It was a fair hearing. I deserve my punishment. I'll serve it and then it's back to football matters.
"It's a big weight off my shoulders. I've let a lot of people down. But I've handed myself in, I've been honest to myself and honest to everybody. I'll move forward now.
"I feel this is a new start for me as a person. Hopefully that will reflect on what I can do at Hamilton Academical.
"I hope (my situation) can help anyone. I've had lots and lots of letters and emails of support and also from people saying it's given them the strength and the courage to own up to their own faults and addictions.
"If it's helped one person it's been worthwhile."
An SFA statement read: "The period of suspension selected reflects the gravity of the breach of the rule involving the large number of low value bets.
"The tribunal chose to suspend one half of the sanction to reflect the genuine efforts it considered Mr Rice has made to 'put his life and that of his family back together again', and to take account of his genuine expression of remorse for his breach of the rule and the effect that has had on his family, the club and the Scottish FA.
"It is the hope of the tribunal that the suspended element will not be imposed but will play some part in helping Mr Rice to avoid returning to the practice, which has so blighted his life."
Hamilton chief executive Colin McGowan said: "The independent panel and the officers who presided over it were very good and very fair. We got a real fair hearing with all the mitigating circumstances taken into account.
"I think it's a good day for all. The panel praised Brian for his honesty in coming forward. That played a big factor in the ruling."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel