'Lump on': What we learned from Kieran Trippier's betting phone messages
The 46-page judgment on Kieran Trippier’s betting rule breaches is titled The FA v Kieran Trippier, which suggests a thrilling courtroom drama. Instead we were given something even more interesting - a footballer’s phone messages.
Within the “written reasons” (an odd turn of phrase, as if a faceless FA mandarin readies his inkpot and quill every time Jose Mourinho tees off on a ref) we can see that footballers and their friends communicate much the same as the rest of us. With a few more emojis.
Dramatis Personae
KT - Kieran Trippier, referred to by his initials throughout. Bit weird to use a nickname in such a formal document, but whatever
OH - friend of KT, with several Whatsapp groups in common
MB - Matthew Brady, another friend who runs a company offering ‘exclusive and bespoke personal assistant service’. Can open doors if you need a family day out sorted.
Mr Astley - FA Integrity and Intelligence Analyst. Tragically not singer Rick
Some selected extracts from the report, and our thoughts:
Perhaps most significantly, Mr Astley produced exhibit TA/19 which is described as a Full chronology of all relevant conversations obtained from the forensic download of KT’s mobile phone
This is a truly chilling idea. Most of us would be forced to withdraw from public life for at least six months if even our last 10 Google searches were made public, let alone everything we’ve ever done with our mobile phones.
He became aware in April 2019 that the Italian Club, Napoli, might be interested in acquiring him but this potential move was not looked on favourably by his family and accordingly it was not an option which KT wished to pursue
Fair enough. Naples is the embodiment of the old adage ‘nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there’
The friends in question were OH, B, Dale Parry (DP) and Ryan McDonald (RM). KT, B, DP and RM were members of a WhatsApp chat group known as Final; those men, together with OH and Mr Wadsworth were also members of a chat group known as Pint.
Yes! Yes! Yes! This is what I want from my FA Written Reasons. Footballers are clearly bound by too many popup WhatsApp groups, all set up for different events, as the rest of us. Depending on your age and gender you’ll almost certainly have a group in your phone called one of the following: Stag, Hen, Mum’s birthday, Dad’s birthday, Lunch, Christmas, Bonfire Night, Halowe’en, Lent... “Pint” is a classic of the genre.
At 14.59 in the afternoon of 11 July OH placed a bet of £20 at odds of 6/1 on KT being transferred to Atlético. 41 seconds later OH sent a message to KT which read “6/1 Athletico Madrid 👀”. In his evidence KT accepted the emoji “👀” was a shorthand meaning “shifty eyes” ... Just under 6 minutes later KT replied with an emoji showing 3 laughing faces (😂😂😂).
Here come the emojis. It’s doubtful that any Written Reasons to date have included as many. But boy, this Written Reasons Writer sure can suck the fun out of them. No surprise whatsoever that KT and friends are communicating this way. Most grandmothers would understand emoji use at this level, it's Key Stage 1 stuff.
That said, a later reference to 'KT' using an emoji showing a "large thumbs up (👍)" raises its own questions. Do footballers have access to a Premium set of emojis, bigger than the rest of us? Give nurses footballers' emojis!
Note “words used,” because if we were including emojis we’d be here all day. Comforting confirmation that people close to football share the view of Daniel Levy’s hard-bargaining with the average football pub bore. Trippier dodges the question “Is Levy going to be hard work?” perhaps because the answer is invariably “yes”. Less diplomacy from Trippier about moving to China. Let’s hope that the forensically-searched phone wasn’t a Huawei, or further damaging leaks may be incoming.
On Sunday 14 July KT messaged MB to tell him that he was thinking of taking his family to Paradise Wildlife Park. MB agreed to make the necessary arrangements. At the Park the two men spoke. KT also spoke to MB’s mother. One thing is not in dispute; there was a discussion of sorts with both around KT moving to Madrid.
A wonderful interlude. After a hard week of transfer negotiations, learning some Spanish hashtags and mugging off the nation of China sometimes we all need a restorative day out to a wildlife park.
We have reached VERY naughty territory now. Even if your knowledge of gambling is limited to Grand National sweepstakes, Trippier replying “can do” to the question “shall I lump on you going there?” is less smoking gun, more rocket launcher on fire. To underline the gravity of the situation the emojis are back with us. “Illegible emoji” raises more questions than it answers.
OH messaged that he was in Spain waiting for KT to arrive. Shortly thereafter, KT messaged that “nearly done deal levy just wants £500k more”.
Daniel Levy IS going to be hard work.
We have reservations about whether we should accept at face value KT’s evidence that he treated what OH had said about betting as “banter”. Ultimately, however, that is not crucial. What is crucial is that we are completely satisfied that objectively KT ought not to have assumed that it was banter.
Dangerous to assume anyone is on the same page as you about what does and does not constitute ‘banter,’ just ask Richard Keys.
It is clear both from the Initial Case Summary and the way in which the case was presented to us that the inside information allegedly provided by KT to OH were the words “It’s happening” followed very shortly thereafter by the words “Yes mate 😂” in answer to a query by OH “Yeah mate?”. The FA suggest that this short message exchange indicated unequivocally to OH that KT’s transfer to Atlético was going to happen and that this constituted inside information.
By this point I felt some sympathy for KT.
He has been charged with providing information to his friends, but there is no suggestion he instructed, permitted, caused or enabled them to make bets on it, and he has been keen to stress he has never benefitted financially from inside information.
Imagine not telling your friends about something as important as a change of jobs, which required moving to another country? I’ve spent mornings on WhatsApp giving friends updates about the progress of an expected parcel delivery. Yes, I am the life and soul of any party.
Fortunately, as far as I know, none of them were placing bets on it. Please don’t forensically download my phone.
