Brentford striker Ivan Toney banned for eight months and fined for breaching betting rules

Ivan Toney has been handed an immediate eight-month ban from football for breaching Football Association betting rules.

talkSPORT revealed in March how the Bees were expecting the 27-year-old to receive a ban after he admitted multiple charges of breaching FA gambling rules.

A statement from the FA 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 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.

In his own statement on social media, Toney tweeted: Today I have received notification of my eight-month ban from football following a hearing before an FA Regulatory Commission that took place yesterday. I am naturally disappointed that I will be unable to play for the next eight months.

The written reasons for the Commission’s decision have not yet been published, so I make no further comment at this point other than to thank my family and friends, Brentford FC and our fans for their continued support, through what has been a very difficult time. I now focus on returning to play the game I love next season.

Toney had appeared before a disciplinary panel on Tuesday amid the multiple offences he faced. He was charged with 232 breaches of betting rules in November, with the incidents claimed to have occurred from when he was on Newcastle’s books in 2017, to when he joined Brentford from Peterborough in 2021.

And the one-cap England international was then charged with a further 30 offences at the end of December, though these were eventually withdrawn by the FA. talkSPORT understands that Brentford were expecting a ban of this nature and will continue to pay the player’s wages while he serves a suspension.

Toney’s lengthy ban will likely end any transfer speculation linking the player with a move away from Brentford this summer. Chelsea were touted as a possible destination for the centre-forward, with Gabby Agbonlahor urging the Blues to snap him up. Only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have scored more than Toney’s 20 Premier League goals this season.

The news will come as a huge blow for ninth-placed Brentford, who are still in with a shot at securing European football for next campaign. But they will be without their talisman for the crunch clashes away at Tottenham, before welcoming Manchester City to the Gtech Community Stadium on the final day.