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. 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.
Ivan Toney banned for 8 months till January. Brentford will be looking for a short term replacement then in the summer. Probably not bad timing as they have time to prepare . Presume he wasn’t accused on betting for his own side otherwise that could be match fixing?
I guess he's fortunate the majority of it will be served during the off season and pre season. Doesn't have to worry about the bleep test now either. Puts any transfer away this season off you'd imagine? Why spend out on a player in January who hasn't played football for 8 months.
Wonder if he appeals - but if he does danger the ban doesn’t start till it’s heard and so doesn’t start till after the summer. Probably best to just take it. Feels harsh but oh well.
I think he’s not allowed to train with Brentford until September 17th as well. Thing is, if that kills a transfer for the next two windows then they feasibly can’t sell him until next year when he’ll be in the last year of his deal and they run the risk of losing him for free in 2025. Shite luck for Brentford if they were looking to cash in. Wonder if they’ll offer an extension with something that makes a move (and cash windfall for Brentford) a little easier i.e. a reasonable release clause?
Absolutely ludicrous that: 1) They have allowed him to play this entire season despite what always obviously a very serious string of offences. 2) They have banned him for the summer when there won't be any football for 2 months.
Expect United to put a £100million bid in for him now. It'll get reduced. No way he'll want to be out that long.
To be fair, all the reports from a few months ago were suggesting that the ban was expected to be 6 months, so it looks like they may have stuck an extra couple months onto it to cover the summer
Match fixing can be classed as a serious offence, but that's not what Toney has been accused of. He just likes a bet as do many of us? Silly boy though.
He really on misses half a season, due to the timing. 8 motnhs was about right imo, so it's timing is about as good as he can hope for. Hopefully for Brentford, he keeps himself fit as possible, trains hard when he gets back in September, and gets himself up to speed quickly in January. The cup fiztures around then will help.
Ends almost exactly half way through the January window. Quite a coincidence. If I were a Toney, I'd put £5 on them having decided a half season ban is the correct punishment and choosing the months to fit that
Weird is he's played so much of the season. Ironically I was a bit miffed he was allowed to play against us in December as I figured a ban would be imminent. Quite weird that the timing means he'll miss the Spurs game on Saturday.
In terms of his involvement in games this season, you can't surely get banned simply by being accused of something... you have to be found guilty of it. The "news" that came out a few months ago was a leak, and again you can't take action based on a leak. There has to be due process and he has the right to address each of the charges. Silly man for placing bets, so he deserves the ban. It unfortunately punishes the club unfairly as they're hardly at fault, whilst the timing of the ban in relation to his contract means we've lost a shit ton of transfer value, as have Peterborough and to a lesser extent Northampton. Football has a problem with the betting industry that needs to be addressed. These were Toney's own actions and he rightly is facing the consequences of them. It's a mighty shame he's missing out on a crucial part of his short career just at the point of hitting 20 goals in the Prem and gaining England recognition. Whilst it's sometimes entertaining seeing other clubs and players get punished for things, I'm a big believer in the Premier League being the best around due to the quality of players and characters involved, so it'll be a loss from the EPL to lose one of the top scorers - similarly if Kane were out for 8 months with an injury. Not overly concerned though - we got 7 points from 9 (would have been 9 if not for that laughable OG in injury time at Forest) in the 3 games he's missed this season, with both Wissa and Mbuemo both scoring in each of them. It's a loss to us that he's out for a length period... but I think we'll be fine.
