The English football association has explained why it banned Brentford striker, Ivan Toney.
The Englishman was suspended for eight months following breaches of the FA’s gambling regulations.
In a statement released on Friday by the football body, it was explained that Toney placed 13 bets on his own club to lose and has been diagnosed with a gambling addiction.
It was also revealed, 126 bets were in matches in a competition in which Toney’s club had participated in or were eligible to participate in that season; of those 126 bets, 29 bets involved clubs Toney was registered with or on loan with at the time; 16 of those 29 bets were on Toney’s team to win 15 different matches – and Toney played in 11 of these games and was an unused substitute in another.
Furthermore 13 bets of the 29 bets were on Toney’s own team to lose in seven different matches between August 22, 2017 and March 3, 2018 – but Toney did not play in any of those matches; 11 of the 13 bets were against Newcastle while Toney was on loan at another club.
The FA also revealed that the other two bets related to a game between Wigan vs Aston Villa while Toney was on loan at Wigan but he was not part of the squad; that there was also a breach of FA Rule E8.2 on insider information when on March 29, 2018 Toney told a friend he would be starting in his club’s next match.
Toney was reported to have argued it was widely known he was likely to play but accepted it as a breach of the rules.
Also, Toney admitted lying to investigators on more than one occasion after he initially denied he had bet on football.
The England international guilty to 232 betting rule violations between February 2017 and January 2021 and was banned from all football activities until January 17th, as well as fined £50,000. He will be able to return to training on September 17th.
If Toney had not pleaded guilty to the charges against him, the FA would have imposed a 15-month ban beginning with the start of the next season, “to properly reflect the seriousness of the offences admitted, including betting on one’s own team to lose, despite the fact that he was not playing.”
