Brentford striker Ivan Toney will not play football again until at least January 2024 after being found guilty of breaching the FA betting rules, months after being charged with almost 300 offences.
As per BBC Sport, ‘the alleged breaches took place between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021, during which time Toney represented Scunthorpe United, Wigan Athletic, Peterborough United and Brentford’.
The London Evening Standard add that ‘he admitted to 232 betting charges after 30 were withdrawn. He won’t be able to train with Brentford for the first four months’ of his ban.
The Englishman, whose transgressions first came to light in November 2022, has scored 20 Premier League goals this season and would in other circumstances have been expected to make the step up to an elite club this summer, though he was valued at £100m by Bees boss Thomas Frank just last week.
He was left out of the 2-0 win over West Ham in their most recent fixture as a result of a reported muscle strain, amid rumours that his ban had started.
And, on Wednesday afternoon that ban was confirmed, with the Englishman handed a whopping 8 month ban that will see him sit out the final two games of this season as well as at least the first half of the next campaign.
It also means that Toney will not be a part of Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the upcoming June and September Euro qualifiers, which in turn puts a place in the EURO2024 squad next summer in major doubt. He was overlooked for the Qatar World Cup, but made his debut in March as he played the final nine minutes in the 2-0 win over Ukraine.
