Sutton’s roly-poly goalkeeper Wayne Shaw resigned from the club on Tuesday after the FA and the UK Gambling Commission launched investigations after he revealed he knew a bookmaker offered odds of 8-1 on him to eat a pie.
A booking agency paid out a five-figure sum with the 46-year-old confirming he had spoken to people about the bet on Monday.
“A few of the lads said to me earlier on what is going on with the 8-1 about eating a pie,” Shaw said post-game.
“I said ‘I don’t know I have eaten nothing all day so I might give it a go later on’.”
Life came at Wayne Shaw fast. pic.twitter.com/Y2zRmVRtvp
— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) February 21, 2017
The (127kg) reserve goalkeeper was filmed downing a pie minutes before full-time of Monday’s game.
Sutton manager Paul Doswell made the call on live television.
“This decision was taken at board level,” Doswell said.
“We felt we had to take very strong actions. The chairman spoke to him this afternoon and Wayne offered his resignation.
“I’m devastated, the chairman is devastated. I have spoken to Wayne and the guy is in tears, crying down the phone. It is a very sad situation.
I support you, Wayne Shaw. What has football come to when a loyal club servant's sacked for a fun pie stunt? Absurd. pic.twitter.com/zhwE4zS8ZS
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 21, 2017
“A situation that had been such good fun in virtually every aspect until what happened last night.
“He’s done a fantastic job for the football club, but unfortunately if any of us put ourselves into Wayne’s position last night then you make your position pretty much untenable.”
The British gambling Commission on Tuesday announced its inquiry as did the FA.
So Wayne Shaw, who slept on a sofa 3 nights a week at Sutton to maintain and run the place loses his job over #piegate. FFS!
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) February 21, 2017
“Integrity in sport is not a joke and we have opened an investigation to establish exactly what happened,” Richard Watson, the commission’s enforcement and intelligence director, said.
“As part of that we’ll be looking into any irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity.”
