Releases written reasons into eight-month ban Ivan Toney placed 13 bets on his own club to lose and has been diagnosed with a gambling addiction, the FA’s written reasons have revealed; the Brentford striker was banned from all football activity for eight months last week following breaches of the FA’s gambling regulations
Ivan Toney placed 13 historical bets on his own club to lose and has been diagnosed with a gambling addiction, as the written reasons for his eight-month ban have been revealed by the FA.
In the written reasons explaining the eight-month ban the Brentford striker, 27, received last week for breaching the FA’s betting rules, it has also been 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 or instructions to bet were in respect of the club that Mr Toney was registered with or on loan with at the time.
- Of those 29 bets there were 16 bets on Mr Toney’s own team to win 15 different matches. Mr Toney played in 11 of these games and was an unused substitute in another game.
- Of those 29 bets, there were 13 bets on Mr Toney’s own team to lose in 7 different matches between 22 August 2017 and 3 March 2018. Mr Toney did not play in any of those matches where he placed bets against his loan club as he was not in the match squad or against his parent club as he was on loan. Of the 13 bets 11 were against Newcastle whilst Mr Toney was on loan at another club.
- The other 2 bets related to a game between Wigan vs Aston Villa whilst the player was on loan at Wigan but he was not part of the squad.
- There was also a breach of FA Rule E8.2 namely an inside information charge whereby on 29 March 2018 Mr Toney informed a friend he would be starting in his club’s next match. The circumstances in which this information was provided are unclear. It is said on behalf of the player not to really amount to inside information because everyone would have known he was likely to play. However, Mr Toney has accepted it as a breach.
According to the FA’s document, had Toney not pleaded guilty to the charges against him, the FA would have imposed a 15-month ban starting from the beginning of next season, “to properly reflect the seriousness of the offences admitted including betting on one’s own team to lose, albeit he was not playing.”
By pleading guilty, however, he is seen to have saved substantial time and cost, leading to a 25 per cent reduction to 11 months.
In addition, the independent commission found that “a significant reduction should be made to reflect the diagnosed gambling addiction identified by [psychiatrist] Dr [Philip] Hopley.”
The document continued: “The lack of control the player has in respect of gambling is clearly a reflection of his diagnosed gambling addiction. The position appears to be that Mr Toney has ceased gambling on football although he still gambles on other sports and casino games.
“He is determined to address his gambling problem with therapy at the conclusion of this season. Taking all of those matters into account the Commission reduces the sanction by three months to a suspension of eight months. There is no clear and compelling reason to suspend any part of that suspension.”
The FA says they “invited” the commission to order that the suspension begin at the start of the next season. They suggested as an alternative that a period of suspension could be added on to reflect he wasn’t playing in the summer. The commission rejected this.
A statement released on the Brentford’s official website on Friday morning said:
Brentford FC has received and accepted the written reasons of an independent Regulatory Commission that handed Ivan Toney an eight-month ban from all football and football-related activity after he admitted breaches of FA Rule E8, relating to placing bets on football.
The judgement has been published on the FA website. Ivan and Brentford FC accept that offences were committed, and sanctions were inevitable.
The commission noted that none of the charges related to events where Ivan could negatively impact his own team. The detail is included in the written reasons.
“The club will now be doing everything possible to provide support to Ivan and his family to deal with the issues raised in this case. Conversations regarding this and all matters relating to the case will remain confidential in order to protect the player and his family.
“We consider this matter closed and look forward to welcoming Ivan back to training in September and seeing him representing Brentford in the Premier League in January.”
