FORMER Sunderland forward Chris Maguire has been hit with a backdated ban following breaches of betting rules.

The six-week suspension has been backdated to November and is considered to have now been served.

Maguire, who made more than 100 appearances for the Black Cats, was suspended by Lincoln last year when allegation of the betting breaches came to light. He then left the club by mutual consent and later joined Hartlepool, but never played a game for Pools due to the investigation that was taking place.

He was initially charged with allegedly breaching rules by placing 52 bets on football matches. Maguire, 34, was fined £750 by an independent regulatory commission and given a warning, but the FA appealed the sanction.

The FA announced on Tuesday that an appeal board had imposed a six-week ban, backdated to November 22 last year when the initial sanctions were imposed by the original commission.

The breaches of FA regulations which were either admitted or found proved related to 10 bets placed by Maguire between 2016 and 2022.

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In October, Hartlepool boss Keith Curle said Maguire's contract was "off the table" until the issue was dealt with.

Curle said: "This is a conversation I’ve had with Chris and his agent and the agreement that we’ve come to now is the contract is off the table and it’s going to be revisited after his pending alleged case.

“There’s been a lot of toing and froing but I spoke to Chris and his agent and said we need to come to an agreement whereby we sit down and have discussions where if you get charged and there’s a ban then do your ban and then we sit down with complete and utter clarity.”