Ivan Toney repeatedly bet on own club and tried to conceal gambling, FA finds

Ivan Toney repeatedly bet on matches involving his own team and would have received a ban of longer than eight months had he not been diagnosed with a gambling addiction, the written reasons of his case, published by the Football Association, have shown.

The Brentford striker has been suspended by the FA from playing until January 2024 and cannot train with his teammates until September after accepting 232 breaches of the FA’s rules on betting.

The written reasons state that “126 bets were in respect of matches in a competition in which Mr Toney’s club had participated in or were eligible to participate in that particular season”.

They continue that “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” and that of those 29 “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.”

The written reasons further state that “there were 13 bets on Mr Toney’s own team to lose in seven 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 v Aston Villa whilst the player was on loan at Wigan but he was not part of the squad.

“A further 15 of the 126 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