London, United Kingdom (AFP) — England international Kieran Trippier has been banned for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 (US$94,000) for breaching betting rules, the Football Association (FA) announced yesterday.

The 30-year-old Atletico Madrid defender’s worldwide ban from all football and football-related activity will run until February 28.

Trippier’s ban takes force with immediate effect.

The former Tottenham Hotspur star — who was one of England’s standout performers in their run to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals — denied the seven charges.

However, the FA said four of the alleged breaches had been proven with three others dismissed.

“The Atletico Madrid defender denied seven alleged breaches of FA rule E8(1)(b), which were said to occur during July 2019, and requested a personal hearing,” said an FA spokesperson.

“An independent regulatory commission was appointed to hear the case, with four of the alleged breaches found proven and three dismissed during a subsequent personal hearing (in October).

“The independent regulatory commission’s written reasons for its decisions and the associated sanction will be published in due course.”

The suspension will rule Trippier out of at least 14 matches for Spanish La Liga leaders Atletico, according to their website, including the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash with Chelsea on February 23.

He will be available for the Madrid derby on March 7.

The offences took place in July 2019 around the time he completed his move from Tottenham to Atletico for a fee in the region of £20 million.

His ban relates to rule E8(1)(b), which states: “Where a participant provides to any other person any information relating to football which the participant has obtained by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available at that time, the participant shall be in breach of this rule where any of that information is used by that other person for, or in relation to, betting.”

Trippier had been adamant, when he was first charged in May, he was innocent.

“I want to make it clear that, while a professional footballer, I have at no stage placed any football-related bets or received any financial benefit from others betting,” he said in a statement.