Brentford striker Ivan Toney recently received a hefty eight-month ban for repeated breaches of the FA’s Betting Regulations. This morning, the FA released a 25-page document detailing the facts of the case – including the nature of the bets and the arguments provided by both sides.
During his spell at Newcastle, ‘there were 13 bets on Mr Toney’s own team to lose in 7 different matches,’ but the striker ‘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.‘
They went on to add that ‘of the 13 bets, 11 were against Newcastle whilst Mr Toney was on loan at another club. The other two bets related to a game between Wigan v Aston Villa whilst the player was on loan at Wigan, but he was not part of the squad.‘
Additionally, the FA statement confirmed that ‘a further 15 bets or instructions to bet were placed by Mr Toney to score in nine different matches, all of which he played in. All of those 15 bets or instructions to bet were initiated by Mr Toney at a time when it would not have been public knowledge that he was starting or playing in the fixture.‘
The FA initially wanted to impose a lengthier ban on the Brentford forward, alleging that he attempted to conceal his betting via using a false phone number and date of birth. This allegation was dismissed by the Independent Commission though, who agreed that if Toney had wanted to hide his identity, he would have also provided fake address details.
They also presented evidence that the striker had deleted some text messages between himself and others in a bid to cover up his betting activity. Once more, the Independent Commission disputed this claim – arguing that if Ivan Toney wanted to remove traces of his activity, he would have deleted all of the texts relating to illegal betting.
The striker’s ban was reduced further, as Dr Philip Hopley found that he suffers from a gambling addiction. In a club statement, Brentford say that they ‘will be doing everything possible to provide support to Ivan and his family to deal with the issues raised in this case.’ They went on to add that they now ‘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.’
Leave a Reply