In November 2021, Kynan Isaac played in the first round of the FA Cup against League One opposition — a match that was shown live on ITV.
Fast forward three years and Isaac, 31, is working as a driving instructor in Oxford.
His career was effectively ended by a 10-year ban he received from the FA. This came after he was ruled to have deliberately got himself booked in that televised match as part of a betting scheme with friends.
Isaac, a father-of-two who no longer plays football in any capacity, still claims he did nothing wrong.
He is now watching the Lucas Paqueta case with interest.
Paqueta, West Ham United’s record signing — he moved from Lyon in the summer of 2022 for £51million ($64.8m) — was charged by the FA on May 23 with deliberately earning a yellow card in four Premier League matches. Around 60 people placed bets on Paqueta to receive a yellow card in one or all of those matches, with the stakes ranging from £7 to £400 (about $9 to $500). Paqueta has vowed to “fight with every breath to clear my name”.
Responding to the Paqueta case, Isaac told The Athletic: “You can’t give me a 10-year ban for one charge and then expect me to say nothing if someone with four of the same charges receives a lesser sentence. How could you justify that? It would be impossible to justify that.
“We’ll see what they give him, if he’s found guilty, and then we’ll go from there. It will be very interesting to see if they keep up with the guidelines they have now set. I’ve done it one time and got 10 years. It’s basic maths, he should get 40 years and not play football again. But do I see it happening? Probably not.”
Isaac was playing for Stratford Town, a non-League club in the Southern Premier Central, the seventh tier of English football, when they drew League One Shrewsbury Town at home in the FA Cup first round.
The match was played in front of a record attendance of 2,800 fans at Stratford Town’s Knights Lane ground and televised live on ITV4.
Kynan Isaac (Kynan Isaac)
Despite taking the lead in the tie, there was no FA Cup shock as Stratford eventually lost 5-1 to their superior opponents. However, two days after the match, suspicious betting activity on Isaac to receive a yellow card during the game was raised with the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) by Sky Bet.
Fourteen bets were placed on Isaac to pick up a yellow card in the match, totalling £1,516.50. He was booked in the 84th minute of the match, for a tackle so reckless that referee Ben Toner thought, on reflection, he should actually have been shown a red. As it happened, Sky Bet refused to pay out on the bets that would have come to more than £6,000 in combined winnings.
Following an investigation, Isaac was charged by the FA in August 2022. Two months later, he was given the 10-year ban after a three-person independent commission found him guilty of spot-fixing.
In their written summary, they said: “Any punishment must serve as a deterrent for anyone considering engaging in such deleterious conduct.”
He was given an extra 12-month ban for failing to cooperate with the FA’s investigation — by not providing his telephone billing data, for example — and a further 18-month suspension for breaching FA rules for betting on matches.
The Professional Footballers’ Association said it offered Isaac legal representation but he chose not to take it and didn’t take on board its advice to cooperate with the case.
Isaac, who maintains his innocence, says of the Paqueta case, “It will be interesting to see what happens. I’m not wishing him to be banned, but if you’ve banned me for 10 years for one charge, they’ve now set the precedent and surely have to carry on with the same guidelines.
“They’ve made a rod for their own back. One charge is 10 years, so four should be 40.
“I’ve seen some of the yellows (Paqueta got), they are ridiculous. He’ll foul someone, get up, chase after someone else, foul him, then make another foul just to make sure he gets booked. It’s a no-brainer.”
Paqueta is facing charges including this yellow against Bournemouth last season (Henry Browne/Getty Images)
Paqueta’s case is not expected to progress to a hearing for several months, which means it could stretch into the start of next season.
However, he has been cleared to play for Brazil at Copa America. They start their campaign against Costa Rica on June 25.
Isaac, a left-back who described himself as a “loose cannon” on the pitch, still insists he did nothing wrong.
For the FA Cup tie against Shrewsbury, the odds on him getting booked were 3/1.
Isaac claims that, given the fact he played on the edge and was known for getting booked, these were merely favourable odds, with the betting firms less knowledgeable about non-League players, especially as Stratford were playing a team four tiers higher and likely to be defending for much of the game.
In the 12 matches played by Isaac during the 2021-22 season before the Shrewsbury game, he had received seven yellow cards and one straight red, equating to one card every 126 minutes played. He had picked up a yellow card in each of the previous three league games before the match.
Explaining the Shrewsbury yellow, Isaac claimed he was determined to “leave one” on an opponent who elbowed him in the eye in the 67th minute of the game.
“I’m not the kind of guy who gets elbowed and does nothing about it,” he said. “It’s not how I play the game. If you leave one on me, then I’m going to leave one on you, it’s a well-known fact, ask any manager that I played for. I’m known for bookings and leaving my foot in.”
However, the FA, as part of its evidence, looked at WhatsApp messages sent by Isaac and his friends on a group called ‘My Mates’, in which he joked about getting a booking in the match to help “pay the bills”.
The FA described the exchange, which took place on October 19 after it was confirmed the match would be on TV, as “unequivocal… Isaac is openly discussing getting carded (in the match) with the intention of making money off the bets”.
Additionally, far higher bets than usual — three separate sums of £700, £250 and two £200 bets — were placed on Isaac to get booked by three individuals known to him.
Isaac’s ban topped the one given to Lincoln City’s Bradley Wood, who was given a six-year suspension for intentionally getting booked on two occasions the previous season.
Bradley Wood playing for Lincoln City in 2017 (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
The FA stopped Isaac from playing when his charges were announced and also asked the police to investigate the case but after interviewing him, no further action was taken.
Following his ban, Isaac said he wanted to appeal. The PFA advised him that he didn’t have any grounds to do so when it looked at his case and told him it couldn’t take it on.
With the PFA, Isaac claimed it would cost him at least £5,000 to appeal, money he could not afford.
When the ban kicked in, Isaac, who also played for Oxford City and Banbury United after coming through Reading’s academy, felt he was offered no support. “The PFA haven’t checked in with me once,” he said. “No has said anything to me, or checked on my mental health.
“Football has always been a part of my life. To have that taken away from me was a big loss, it made me depressed and sad. I was moping around, but I’ve got two kids so I can’t afford to sit around and feel sorry for myself. I’ve got to get over it.”
When contacted by The Athletic, the PFA said it would reach out again to Isaac, but added he had made it clear he didn’t want its help with his case at the outset.
Isaac’s 18-month suspension, which came on top of his 10-year ban, was for betting on 347 matches between August 2016 and November 2021. Those bets, totalling £2,827.13 with a net loss of £1,004.97, included 10 on his own club, always as part of an accumulator bet. Of those 10 bets, six were placed against his own team.
“I’m sure there are people playing non-League now who won’t know you can’t bet on the Premier League or the Euros this summer, it’s not a well-known thing,” he said. “In the Football League, you have a meeting and they let you know (not to bet) but that’s not the case in non-League. They send a letter to the clubs but that doesn’t mean every player at the club sees the letter.”
In this regard, Isaac also felt he had been harshly treated compared with players higher up the pyramid, such as Ivan Toney (eight-month ban for 232 breaches), Sandro Tonali (10-month worldwide ban, plus a suspended two-month ban) and Harry Toffolo (a suspended five-month ban for 375 breaches).
And he accused football of double standards when it came to betting, given its prevalence in the game.
“They are happy to advertise betting in Premier League games and they are happy for clubs to wear the sponsors but they don’t actively do anything to let players (lower down the pyramid) know you can’t bet.”
Premier League clubs have agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorships from the front of match shirts by the end of the 2025-26 season.
Responding to Isaac’s claims, the FA said each case is judged on its own merits.
(Top photos: Kynan Isaac and Lucas Paqueta; courtesy of Kynan Isaac; Getty Images)
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