Veteran Anderlecht defender Olivier Deschacht is facing a €100,000 fine for breaching Belgian football's betting laws for players, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
Deschacht was told in December he would not face court over claims bets on Anderlecht games were placed via an online account created in his name in 2008, but that the matter was being passed to Belgium's Betting Commission.
He claimed his brother, Xavier, had placed the stakes, which included some bets on Anderlecht to lose, including a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain that the French side won 5-0 and in which Deschacht was an unused substitute.
The commission has ruled that the Deschacht brothers are both guilty of "serious" breaches of regulations, and is imposing a €100,000 fine on each of them, Het Nieuwsblad reported.
"I'm not going to react to the amount," Luc Deleu, Olivier Deschacht's lawyer, is reported as saying by La Derniere Heure. "But the procedure is clear: we have the possibility of defending ourselves, either in written form or orally. If we contest the decision, the commission has two months to put forward another punishment. And if we still don't agree, we have a month to appeal to the courts."
An initial €20,000 fine had been mooted for Deschacht.
"He'd probably accept a less severe penalty because then all the fuss would be over," a member of Deschacht's entourage told Het Nieuwsblad. "But a fine of €100,000 for bets with a stake of no more than €200 from which he never earned a cent? Come on. Olivier is also not a big earner either."
The newspaper estimates Deschacht, 35, earns €1 million-a-year at the club, where he has played since 1997.
La Derniere Heure last month revealed that KV Ostende striker Knowledge Musona and Sam Helemeers, a basketball player with Telenet Ostende, had been fined €3,000 for betting on matches, and in Musona's case, on some games involving his own team.
