ACCRINGTON Stanley have warned Robbie Williams and club captain Peter Cavanagh that they will have no future at the club if they are found guilty of betting against their own team.

After an 11-month investigation, the FA announced yesterday that they had charged five players – Williams, Cavanagh, Jay Harris, David Mannix and Andy Mangan – with betting on Bury to beat Stanley in the final game of last season, when the Shakers won 2-0 at the Fraser Eagle Stadium.

Mannix is alleged to have placed stakes to the value of approximately £4,000, with Mangan betting £3,500, Harris £2,000 and Williams £1,000.

Cavanagh put on a £5 accumulator, which is understood to have included three other matches.

The skipper has also been charged with further breaches in relation to betting on another Stanley match in which he played - understood to be a bet on Stanley to win - and a number of other League Two matches.

Mangan had already returned to Bury at the end of a loan spell with Stanley by the time of the game, while Harris and Mannix were released in the summer. Harris has also been charged in relation to betting on a game involving his new club, Chester, and two more League Two fixtures.

But defenders Cavanagh, 27, and Williams, 28, who both already had contracts for this year at the time of the Bury match, are still at Stanley and have been stalwarts of the club’s rise from non-league.

The duo have been told they will still be involved in Saturday’s League Two trip to Grimsby, when they are both expected to be in the starting line-up. Cavanagh will remain as captain.

Both have requested personal hearings, with all five players given until April 23 to respond to the charges.

But Stanley chairman Whalley has warned that, with both scheduled to be out of contract at the end of the season, they will be looking for new clubs if they are found guilty. The quintet may face lengthy bans in any case.

“We are taking advice from the FA and PFA and at the moment we have to sit tight and wait for a decision,” said the long-serving chairman, who will himself leave the club once an imminent takeover goes through.

"I have spoken to John about the players and at the moment they are still in the squad and remain innocent unless proven guilty.

“I imagine he would be loath to drop them as we only have a small squad. I would think if we do not play them we are saying they are guilty.

“We cannot afford to lose fans over this and I understand their anger. If the players are found guilty then they disgust me and the only option would be instant dismissal.”

Stanley, however, do not expect any punishment for the club - even if all five are found guilty - with manager John Coleman saying: “This shouldn’t be taken as a slight on the club because it isn’t. The club haven’t been implicated in any way.

“We’ll just have to see what happens because at this stage they are still allegations.

“The club is having its own internal inquiry, the players have now been charged and if they are found guilty we will have to take action. We will have to see what happens before we decide on what action.

“But we should have won that game. We were the better team and anyone who saw the game will know that all the players were trying.”

Assistant boss Jimmy Bell, who was similarly keen to stress that the players are innocent until proven guilty, said: “I don’t know if the club will be punished but I hope not because the club did everything it could.

“We heard the rumours before the game, so we sat all the players down and had a meeting.

“We said to them, ‘If anyone has had a bet, tell us now and we’ll sort things out.’ But no-one said anything.

“We were going to play Martin Fearon and some of the other players who were going to be released, but we were told we couldn’t because so much money had been put on the game.

“This is untimely for us. We’ve been playing well and we were hoping to finish the season on a high, but this situation may well prove detrimental to that.”

In addition, Leighton McGivern has been charged with a failure to provide the FA with information requested during the investigation.

He left Stanley in the summer and denies the charge.