Ivan Toney placed bets on his own team losing in an extraordinary revelation into his gambling habits as the Football Association published their written reasons behind his eight-month suspension. The England international – who will not be able to play until January 2024 at the earliest after admitting to 232 breaches of the FA’s gambling regulations, which included betting against his own team with 13 bets – has since broken his silence with a six-word message.
He wrote on social media on Friday afternoon: “I’ll speak soon with no filter.” Toney had pleaded guilty to 232 of the 262 betting charges brought by the FA in a hearing last week and was served with an eight-month suspension from all football activity along with a £50,000 fine. He will not be able to train with his club Brentford until September at the earliest.
The suspension may have been longer than initially expected, with Gareth Southgate hitting out at the punishment. However, it was actually reduced by three months as The FA published the written reasons behind their decision to ban Toney.
It included findings from a psychiatrist, who diagnosed Toney as a gambling addict after assessing the 27-year-old. But one of the most notable inclusions in the report was the reference to 13 bets made by Toney against his own team over a period of seven months between 2017 and 2018.
At the time, Toney had been contracted to Newcastle and was sent on loan to Wigan Athletic and Scunthorpe United. It was also stated in the FA’s report that Toney did not play in any of the matches where he bet against his parent club, Newcastle, while on loan at Wigan.
He also backed on himself to score on multiple occasions. Brentford released a statement in response to the report’s publication, setting out their own clarifications and concluding by saying they “consider the matter to be closed”.
A club statement read: “Brentford FC has received and accepted the written reasons of an independent Regulatory Commission that handed Ivan Toney an eight-month ban from all football and football-related activity after he admitted breaches of FA Rule E8, relating to placing bets on football.
“The judgement has been published on the FA website. Ivan and Brentford FC accept that offences were committed, and sanctions were inevitable.
“The commission noted that none of the charges related to events where Ivan could negatively impact his own team. The detail is included in the written reasons.
“The document reads: ‘The present case is not one of match-fixing. If it was, the charges would have been pursued under different provisions. There is no evidence that Mr Toney did or was even in a position to influence his own team to lose when he placed bets against them winning – he was not in the squad or eligible to play at the time’.”
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