London - The Football Association announced Friday that it will investigate newspaper reports that a player deliberately got himself sent off in order to clear a 50,000-pound (98,000-dollar) gambling debt.

According to the Independent, the incident happened within the last two years in Britain, but it did not state which league was involved.

"We will be making inquiries into this report," an FA spokesman said.

Their first task will be to determine whether the incident happened in England. If not, it lies beyond the FA's jurisdiction.

According to the report, the bookmaker agreed to write off the debt if the player got himself sent off and persuaded three team- mates to get booked in a specific match - effectively manipulating the spread-betting on cards shown in the game.

The player's team went on to be defeated.

The case was disclosed in a seminar on gambling at the Sporting Chance clinic in Hampshire this week.

The clinic's chief executive Peter Kay said he was aware of the case.

"Neither I nor Sporting Chance is responsible for what a client or ex-client might say, but if you're asking whether I'm aware of this case, the answer is yes," Kay said.(dpa)