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After breaching FA's Betting Rules, the Brentford striker has been suspended for 8 months after pleading guilty to 232 betting offences, but which other players have been banned for betting?
Pulse Sports reported that Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been suspended from football and all football-related activities for eight months after pleading guilty to 232 betting offences.
The FA in a statement confirmed the ruling on Wednesday that Toney will be banned until January 16, 2023 and is also allowed to train in September 2023.
An official statement from the FA read:
'Ivan Toney has been suspended from all football and football-related activity with immediate effect for eight months, which runs up to and including 16 January 2024, fined £50,000 and warned as to his future conduct for breaches of The FA's Betting Rules.
'The Brentford FC forward was charged with 262 breaches of FA Rule E8 in total between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021. The FA subsequently withdrew 30 of these breaches and he admitted to the remaining 232.
'His sanctions were subsequently imposed by an independent Regulatory Commission following a personal hearing.
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He is permitted to return to training only with his club for the final four months of his suspension starting from 17 September 2023.
'The independent Regulatory Commission's written reasons for these sanctions will be published in due course, and The FA will wait to review them before commenting further.'
The lands a major blow to Ivan Toney's domestic and international future, with the Bees striker having won call-ups to Gareth Southgate's England squad thanks to his fruitful goal-scoring season in west London.
Toney has also been touted for a move away from the G-tech community stadium with Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea rumoured to be keeping an eye on the Brentford hitman.
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The 27-year-old Northampton native has also been fined £50,000 by the FA and warned over his future conduct in relation to the governing body's betting regulations.
Ivan Toney has so far netted an impressive 21 goals in 35 appearances for Brentford this season.
Why was Ivan Toney banned?
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The Brentford striker was charged with allegedly breaching the FA's betting rules on 232 occasions in a time period stretching from February 2017 and January 2021.
Prior to the FA’s final verdict on the matter, Ivan Toney had reacted on social media when reports of an investigation into his betting breach emerged.
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Taking to his official Twitter account, Ivan Toney wrote: 'I'm aware of a story about me in a national newspaper today.
'I have been assisting the Football Association with their enquiries and will not be making any comment until such investigation has reached its conclusion.'
The FA later confirmed last December that Ivan Toney had been charged with a further 30 alleged breaches of the FA's Betting Rules, claiming that the additional offences occurred between March 2017 and February 2019.
However, the FA’s final verdict on Wednesday now means that the Brentford striker will miss the Bees last two games of the season.
Brentford travel to play Tottenham Hotspur this weekend on Saturday, May 20, before hosting Manchester City on Sunday, May 28, in the final game of the 2022/23 Premier League season.
Ivan Toney’s ban also puts a potential big-money move this summer in doubt as the striker will not be allowed to train until September 2023.
Regardless, Toney will certainly finish the season once again as Brentford’s Top scorer in the Premier League having netted 20 times so far this campaign.
Ivan Toney’s ban is not the first incident that we’ve seen in the footballing world.
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A number of footballers have previously been suspended in the past for breaching betting rules.
In this article, we will quickly review 11 other footballers previously slapped with bans and hefty fines after breaching betting rules.
Ivan Toney betting suspension: 11 other football players who have been banned for betting
1. Kieran Tripper - 10 weeks ban & £70,000 fine
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Newcastle defender Kieran Trippier was once implicated after an infamous WhatsApp message that read, 'Lump on if you want' ultimately saw the Three Lions star penalised for breaching FA betting rules.
The former Tottenham right-back was on the verge of a transfer to Atletico Madrid in July 2019 and had been hinting that he was on the verge of signing in a WhatsApp chat group with his personal friends.
The issue, however, was that Trippier's friends took his hint with utmost seriousness and staked multiple bets on the move, thereby bringing the game into disrepute.
This prompted an investigation from the FA, which included the 32-year-old defender handing over his phone.
Eventually, Trippier was banned from all football-related activity for 10 weeks, fined £70,000, and forced to pay costs.
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Trippier did not personally benefit from the information he held, but he was penalised for providing inside information used to make money for his friends.
Following the ban, Trippier volunteered to help educate young players on gambling in football, but many journalists felt he was hard done by and called for an end to transfer betting markets.
2. Daniel Sturridge - 4 months ban and £150,000 fine
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Daniel Sturridge was once the first-choice striker for England and an integral member of Brendan Rodger’s title-challenging Liverpool team.
However, the former Chelsea man saw his career heavily marred by injuries, having formed a great partnership with Luis Suarez formerly at the Merseyside club.
In 2019, Daniel Sturridge was found guilty of breaching the betting rules after allegations emerged that he spilled information about a potential transfer in January 2018.
According to a report from the BBC, some of the charges against Sturridge which were dismissed alleged he had passed on inside information about possible moves to Inter Milan and West Brom.
In January 2018, Sturridge joined West Brom on loan until the end of the season.
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Initially, he was expected to be handed a six-week ban with four of these weeks suspended, after he was found guilty by an independent commission.
And although the FA then appealed against the findings, the governing body was eventually forced to impose a four-month ban which applied to playing professional football for any club.
Sturridge was also hit with a £150,000 fine and Turkish club Trabzonspor swiftly terminated his contract at the club.
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Sturridge was left protesting his innocence on social media and blaming betting companies for allowing customers to bet on transfer activity.
3. Joey Barton - 18 Months ban
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Controversial English midfielder Joey Barton was also banned for breaching the FA betting rules in December 2016.
The overwhelming evidence stacked up against the former Manchester City player revealed that he placed 1,260 bets over a period of ten years, including several wagers that related to his various team-mates.
Between 26 March 2006 and 13 May 2016, it was alleged by the FA that Barton broke rules by betting on “football matches and competitions”.
Barton was forced to leave with Scottis Premiership giants, Glasgow Rangers, in November 2016 after being handed a one-match ban for breaking Scottish Football Association rules on gambling.In April 2017, the FA decided to ban Barton for 18 months after considering a suitable punishment for his crimes.
4. Andros Townsend - 4 Months ban
Everton winger, Andros Towsend is another English footballer who was caught breaking the betting rules by the FA.
The 31-year-old habit of betting landed him in hot soup with the governing body while he was on loan at Birmingham City in 2012.
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During the 2012/13 season, Townsend revealed that he lost £46,000 in one night while in the midst of a gambling addiction.
The former Tottenham winger ended up getting suspended for four months for breaching the betting regulations as a result.
Following his FA charge, Townsend later revealed that his passion for online betting was birthed when he saw an advert on television and downloaded a bookmaker app.
5. Cameron Jerome - £50,000 fine
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Stoke City have a strong association with online bookmaker Bet365 and it was one of their players who received a £50,000 fine for breaking the Football Association’s betting rules in August 2013.
Cameron Jerome was severely punished after he admitted that he repeatedly breached the regulations set out by the FA.
Jerome became the second player to be charged under betting rules within the space of a few months after Andros Townsend had been banned at a similar time.
6. Matt Le Tissier
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Matthew Paul Le Tissier is a 54-year-old former professional footballer who was famous for his playing days at the soon-to-be championship club Southampton.
Following his retirement as a player, Le Tissier became a football pundit, and worked as a panellist on the Sky Sports show Soccer Saturday until August 2020.
The Southampton legend who was renowned for his excellent accuracy from the penalty spot, landed in trouble a few years ago after revealing that he was part of a failed spread betting sting while on the books at The Dell.
The former midfielder revealed in his autobiography, Taking Le Tiss that he had conspired with friends and a team-mate to try and profit with a spread bet which centred on the time of a first throw-in during a match.
But that was all dependent on whether Le Tissier could kick the ball out of play within a few minutes of kick-off, although the former Saints player claims that he didn’t manage to do this in time and made no money from the bet.
Regardless, the Crown Prosecution Service duly looked into the revelation but no further action was decided.
7. Martin Demichelis - £22,000 fine
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Demichelis won a Premier League title with Manchester City during the 2013/14 football season.
However, the Argentine defender’s gambling dealings saw him charged £22,000 by the FA for betting on football matches in May 2016.
Reports emerged that the central defender placed 29 football bets on matches spanning a period of three weeks.
Demichelis managed managing to escape a ban, although he was warned as to his future conduct by the Football Association.
8. Jordan Stevens - 6 weeks ban
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At the start of his Leeds United career, Jordan Stevens was given a six-week ban by the FA for breaching the betting rules in September 2019.
Leeds described the ban as “disproportionate” after it emerged that the 23-year-old midfielder placed 59 bets during the course of the 2018/19 season, with five of these wagers on matches involving the Whites.
Stevens, who currently plays for Yeovil Town reportedly also placed a bet on the “Both Teams to Score Twice” market considering it carried a maximum sporting sanction of twelve months.
9. Wayne Shaw
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Wayne Shaw was an English former semi-professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
The former Sutton United reserve goalkeeper made the headlines during a televised FA Cup clash against Arsenal when he was captured eating a pie while sitting in the dugout.Many spectators laughed at Shaw who was munching away while his team-mates were getting battered by the Gunners.
It was later alleged that the player had other motives than just being hungry.
In the lead-up to kick-off, the now defunct Sun Bets had been offering a range of special bets relating to the Sutton United vs Arsenal match and that included odds of 8/1 that Shaw would be caught on camera eating a pie.
After the media storm which was deliberately engineered by The Sun, Shaw decided it would be better all-round if he simply took his leave from Sutton United.
10. Scott Kashket - 2 months ban
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Gillingham striker Scott Kashket was found himself in the crosshairs of the FA after breaking the rules while he was at Wycombe Wanderers.
Kashket was banned from all football activity for two months in January 2020 after the FA discovered the striker had placed 183 bets on matches between 3 September 2014 and 22 August 2016 while he was on the books at Leyton Orient.
65 of these wagers were actually related to a game that his club were involved in.
Although, an independent regulatory commission confirmed there was no suggestion that Kashket was involved in match-fixing, nor did they imply that the 23-year-old had used inside information in order to gain an improper advantage.
11. Dan Gosling - £30,000 fine
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Watford midfielder Dan Gosling previously landed in trouble with the FA during his spell with Newcastle United.
The 33-year-old former Bournemouth player was previously charged with breaching the FA betting regulations.
According to the Daily Mirror, Gosling actually made around £5,000 from his betting and was seemingly unaware of the rules which prevented him from placing any bets on football.
However, that profit was donated to a Newcastle United charitable trust, while the player was also forced to pay a £30,000 fine following the charge which included multiple breaches of the rules.
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