Ivan Toney suspended for eight months over betting breaches - ESPN

Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been suspended from all football-related activities for eight months, the English Football Association (FA) announced Wednesday.

Toney has been charged with a total of 262 breaches between February 2017 and January 2021 when he was a player at Scunthorpe United, Wigan Athletic, Peterborough United and Brentford.

ESPN reported in March that the 27-year-old admitted breaking FA rules related to betting prior to appearing before a disciplinary panel.

An FA statement 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 Feb. 25 2017 and Jan. 23 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. He is permitted to return to training only with his club for the final four months of his suspension starting from Sept. 17 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."

Toney was called up to the England squad last September but did not play and was subsequently left out of Gareth Southgate's final 26-man group for the World Cup finals in November.

The striker has been in impressive form this campaign with 21 goals in all competitions.