Toney was banned and fined £50,000 ($63,105) earlier this month after the 27-year-old Brentford and England striker pleaded guilty to 232 breaches of FA betting rules, including betting on matches he played in.
Ivan Toney’s football ban has been reduced to eight months due to his strong performance, “genuine remorse” and being diagnosed with a gambling addiction, the Football Association (FA) said on Friday.
Toney was banned and fined £50,000 ($63,105) earlier this month after the 27-year-old Brentford and England striker pleaded guilty to 232 breaches of FA betting rules, including betting on matches he played in.
The FA’s independent regulatory committee released a written justification for the ban, saying that all parties had reached an agreement to reduce his sentence from 11 months to eight because of his young age and gambling addiction.
“This includes his relative youth when the infringements began, his previous strong record of anything other than on-pitch infringements and his sincere regret, which he expressed in full words before the committee,” he told the FA.
“In addition, and particularly important, the committee finds that significant reductions need to be made to reflect the identified (by expert psychiatrist) diagnosed gambling addiction.
“He is determined to solve his gambling problem with therapy at the end of this season. Considering all these considerations, the commission reduces the sentence by three months to a suspension of eight months.”
The sentence imposed would have been 15 months had Toney not pleaded guilty.
Although Toney is suspended until January 16, 2024, he will be able to train with his team and return to match fitness from September 17.
Of the 262 alleged infringements, the FA said 126 involved matches in competitions in which his club had participated or might have participated.
“He claims to have taken a pragmatic approach to the 42 allegations, which he initially denied as he doubted he was responsible for them, but wanted to end the proceedings as soon as possible and therefore pleaded guilty to them,” it said.
A further 15 bets were placed by Toney on scoring in the nine games he played in, one of the “most serious” allegations as his place in the starting lineup was not publicly known at the time.
The FA added that Toney had placed 13 bets on his own team Newcastle United to lose in seven games between August 2017 and March 2018 while on loan to Wigan Athletic at the time.
“Mr Toney did not play in any of those matches where he bet against his loan club because he was not in the match squad or against his parent club because he was on loan,” he told the FA.
.jpeg){kind=link}