Defence lawyer Lewis Winter told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday that Danzaki was “profoundly ashamed”, with the offending occurring when the club “was not paying their players on time”.<\/p>\n
Cash-strapped Western United went into administration over the weekend, and its A-League licence was revoked.<\/p>\n
Danzaki pleaded guilty to seven betting-related charges on Wednesday, which carried a potential 10-year jail sentence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Riku Danzaki during an A-League semi-final in May. (AAP: Rob Prezioso)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
However, Magistrate Nick Goodenough said he would “not be considering prison” for the 25-year-old, who planned to return to Japan.<\/p>\n
The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard Danzaki and friend Yuta Hirayama manipulated the yellow card betting market on April 27, May 3 and May 9 this year.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Alex Turner said Hirayama placed bets on matches Danzaki participated in, wagering on him being booked and the total number of yellow cards in the games.<\/p>\n
In the April 27 match against Sydney FC, Danzaki flew into a tackle just before the half-time break, catching an opponent on the ankle and leaving him writhing in pain.<\/p>\n
Danzaki rose to his feet and apologised to the Sydney player and the referee, before playing on.<\/p>\n
“Undoubtedly late and a very dangerous tackle, really, coming in studs slightly raised. A yellow card, undeniably,” a television match commentator said at the time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The court heard Yuta Hirayama placed bets on matches his friend was participating in. (AAP: James Ross)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mr Turner said Danzaki “deliberately tried to get a yellow card” against Auckland FC on May 3 by twice kicking out at opponents.<\/p>\n
Danzaki was substituted, but he and Hirayama still collected winnings, because the replacement player was yellow-carded, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Mr Turner said there was no suggestion the substitute was involved in any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
On May 9, Danzaki deliberately got himself carded against Adelaide United during the A-League semi-final, Mr Turner said.<\/p>\n
Failed attempts were made to place bets on another match involving Melbourne City, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Mr Turner said Hirayama transferred the illegal winnings to Danzaki’s bank account and handed him cash during meet-ups around suburban Melbourne.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The prosecutor said there was no suggestion Western United was involved in wrongdoing. (Instagram: A Leagues)<\/p>\n
The prosecutor said betting agencies detected suspicious bets and contacted police.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police discovered incriminating conversations on the Line messaging app, and the pair made “full admissions” after being arrested on May 30, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Danzaki had ‘dishonoured his family’<\/p>\n
Mr Winter said his client had “dishonoured his family” and was suspended from playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the significant media attention the case attracted in Australia and Japan was further punishment.<\/p>\n
Western United lauded Danzaki as a player known for his “quick feet and tactical intelligence” when the club signed him in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He went on to make 49 appearances in the A-League, scoring six goals, and four appearances in the Australia Cup.<\/p>\n
He previously played for Scottish club Motherwell, Brisbane Roar, and Japanese side Sapporo.<\/p>\n
Hirayama, a student and suburban football player with the Bayside Argonauts, also pleaded guilty to seven charges related to the scheme.<\/p>\n
His lawyer Molly Deighton said the offending was “out of character” and that he made about $5,000 from the illegal wagers.<\/p>\n
Danzaki and Hirayama will be sentenced on August 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former A-League player Riku Danzaki will avoid jail after pleading guilty to deliberately receiving yellow cards in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32406,64,63,51899,51898,1108,44067,51900,13198,51901,85,2024,44066],"class_list":["post-64980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-a-league","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bayside-argonauts","tag-bets","tag-court","tag-football-australia","tag-riku-danzaki","tag-soccer","tag-soccer-yellow-card-betting-scheme","tag-sports","tag-victoria-police","tag-western-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}