West Ham winger Andriy Yarmolenko has been charged by the Football Association (FA) with alleged misconduct in relation to an appearance in a betting advert in his native Ukraine.
The FA announced on Friday that Yarmolenko has been charged with a breach of FA Rule E8.5 following an "alleged incident of misconduct in relation to advertising and/or promoting a betting activity in his personal capacity."
"The West Ham United FC forward is prohibited from such activity as a participant in English football, and it is alleged that his appearance in an advert for a Ukrainian betting company constitutes misconduct," the FA statement read.
The charge relates to an advertising campaign run by a betting company in Yarmolenko’s home country. It has no relation to the player or anyone associated with him placing bets.
Yarmolenko signed a deal to promote the company while he was playing for Borussia Dortmund in Germany, where regulations did not prevent such agreements at the time.
The firm have more recently run a campaign using images taken while the Ukraine international was a Dortmund player. The agreement has since been terminated, though it is not clear whether the contract was ended before or after the 32-year-old joined West Ham in 2018.
Yarmolenko has until February 18 to respond to the charge.
The 32-year-old has been at West Ham since a £17.5million move from Borussia Dortmund in 2018, scoring 11 goals in 74 appearances across all competitions.
He has made only 11 Premier League appearances under David Moyes so far this term and is out of contract at London Stadium in the summer.
Former Dynamo Kiev star Yarmolenko is a key figure for Ukraine, earning 106 senior international caps since 2009 and often captaining his country.
