Recap: England vs Ukraine 0:2 (Sport1)
Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney has been under investigation for months on suspicion of gambling on football matches. Tony was indicted in November and reportedly pleaded guilty to most of the charges against him in February. He was recently prosecuted and has now been formally suspended for the next eight months because he was found guilty of violating 232 of the 262 cases investigated between 2017 and 2021.
This means Toney has been immediately banned until January 16, 2024 as punishment for breaching FA rules. He will be eligible to return to training from September 17, 2023, four months before he is eligible to return to play.
Heavy punishment. Tony (Photo: Reuters)
The 27-year-old Toney, who made his England debut against Ukraine last March and who claims that only following the investigation against him was he not included in Gareth Southgate's squad for the last World Cup, is being investigated for flagrant breach of the law because he used to bet on matches, which he said were not those he or his team were involved in, but even doing so is strictly prohibited.
Toney was absent from Brentford's last game and according to manager Thomas Frank the cause was a minor injury, but it is quite possible that Brentford already knew of the immediate intention to remove him. He has scored 20 goals in 33 Premier League games this season and 12 Premier League goals last season. In the 2020/21 season, he was the star of Brentford's promotion to the Premier League thanks to 31 goals and 10 assists in 45 Championship appearances.
In 2017, while playing for Burnley, Joey Barton received a one-and-a-half-year penalty off the pitch after admitting to gambling 1,260 times between 2006 and 2013, although after appeal the sentence was reduced to 13 months. Two Boston United players were banned for five months in 2021 for 757 gambling in which they confessed.
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