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Former Leeds United forward Pawel Cibicki has opened up on his battle with a gambling addiction. Cibicki is currently serving a four-year ban from football after he was convicted on appeal of match fixing in June 2021.
Cibicki joined Leeds from Malmo for £1.5 million in August 2017 after spending four seasons at Malmo FF. He made just 10 appearances for the Whites across all competitions before being sent out on loan to Molde, IF Elfsborg and ADO Den Hag.
His loan spell with the latter was cut short and he completed a transfer to Polish outfit Pogon Szczecin. Cibicki has explained how his gambling addiction first developed and why more people with gambling problems should come forward.
“I started to gamble a little, for 10-20 Krona,” Cibicki told Swedish outlet Expressen. “But the more I gambled, the bigger the sums eventually became. Eventually, I just lost it. I had no respect for money any longer.
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“In the end, it became large sums. When I was earning the most, when I was playing in England, I had about 200,000 Krona [roughly £16,000] out a month. Sometimes I could waste it in four or five days.
“I think it’s a big problem. It’s getting bigger and bigger every day. If you sit and watch TV, when there are commercials. What’s coming up? Quite honestly, I hope more people dare to come forward. It’s a shame, yes. But if you can break it, you can get out of it.”
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