FORMER Frome Town manager Nick Bunyard made £1,400 betting against his team when he knew all of his goalkeepers were unavailable, a Football Association regulatory commission report has revealed.

The 36-year-old was given a three-year ban by the FA earlier this month for placing 97 football bets between September 2014 and April 2016, including 45 against Frome and his former club Paulton Rovers.

The FA has now published the commission's 'written reasons' on its website and the 24-page report reveals that Bunyard made a total of £2,600 in profit on stakes that came to almost £7,000.

"The 45 bets that were placed by (Nick Bunyard) on the team he was managing at the time to lose represent an extremely serious aggravating factor," said the three-man panel.

"Such bets give rise to a clear and significant conflict of interest."

Bunyard told the commission he tried to win every game "110 per cent", he made bets based on "unavoidable facts" about his players' fitness and he would always prefer to win the game than the bet. He also said he only placed some bets to boost certain players' end-of-year kitty.

But this defence was compromised by several aggravating factors, including the 19 bets he placed on Frome to lose to Weymouth in April when the Somerset club was without four goalkeepers, forcing them to use an outfield player in goal.

Bunyard made several bets - via four different betting operators - on Frome to lose by more than 1.5 goals. The final result was 2-0 to Weymouth.

The panel said that, whatever his intentions, Bunyard's actions resulted in a "serious case of insider dealing which gave him a material advantage in the betting market".

He was also reprimanded for making nine bets on a game involving Frome the day after he was provisionally suspended by the club. He told the panel he was drunk when he did so.

Given the seriousness of his offences, the commission believed a four-year ban was in order, but gave him a 25 per cent reduction for his co-operation and some personal circumstances that he and his family had to deal with that were left undisclosed but described as "extremely difficult".

Bunyard was cleared of an additional charge of breaching his suspension by contacting a former Paulton Rovers player on behalf of Frome Town and attending a match as a spectator. The report also acknowledged that betting in non-league football is probably "rife".

After his ban was announced on November 9, Bunyard tweeted: "Life is too short! Relax take a breath. Move forward."

And last week he expressed his surprise on Twitter when former Rangers midfielder Joey Barton was given a one-game ban for placing 44 bets on football matches.

Contacting the Wiltshire Times after his ban was announced earlier this month, Bunyard said he felt he had been made a scapegoat.

“Some people might look at this and question my integrity but match-fixing wasn’t on the charge sheet. Sometimes, I bet on us to lose and sometimes, I bet us on to win,'' he said.

“I know so many people across non-league football that bet on matches. It’s systemic and it’s one of those things that people do to soften the blow after a game.

“I never profited from those bets and I just moved on.

“I was suspended back in April and it’s taken until now for all of this to be sorted out, and the whole process has been shambolic.

“The FA have their rules against betting that they brought in two-and-a-half years ago but they don’t send people out to educate people and let them know: ‘we will catch you doing it and you will be sanctioned’.

“The whole ordeal has left me completely disillusioned with the FA and I’ve got no desire to ever work in football in this country again.”

Frome Town are currently sixth in the Southern League Premier Division, having finished 16th last season.