Ivan Toney has been banned from all soccer activity for eight months after an FA investigation into allegations of gambling.
The Brentford striker cannot play in a match until January 17, 2024 after having accepted that he was in violation of FA rule E8, which bars players from gambling on matches or sharing internal information for gambling purposes. He was also fined £50,000 after an FA hearing on the matter earlier this week.
Toney’s ban starts immediately, meaning he won’t be available for Brentford’s final two Premier League matches, nor any others in the first half of next season. He is allowed to rejoin training with the Bees on September 17.
Toney was charged with 232 breaches of FA rules in November 2022, before an additional 30 more violations were tacked on a month later. Per a statement from the FA, Toney admitted he was in violation of the rules on the first 232 incidents, while the latter 30 charges were withdrawn.
“Brentford FC notes the decision of an independent Regulatory Commission to issue an eight-month ban from all football and football-related activity to Ivan Toney with immediate effect,” said Brentford in a club statement. “Ivan was charged with breaches of FA rule E8 and had a personal hearing earlier this week. Brentford FC is currently awaiting the publication of the written reasons of the independent regulatory commission. We will review them before considering our next steps.”
An independent regulatory commission assembled by the FA found that Toney’s breaches had run for nearly four years, from February 2017 to January 2021.
The specific nature of those violations has yet to be made public, with Wednesday’s announcement of the ban only noting that “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.”
Bees face tough times without Toney
Toney’s absence will be a massive blow for Brentford. He is by far the club’s leading goalscorer, with 20 goals in all competitions, and has been directly involved in 24 of its 54 league goals this season. He trails only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane in this season’s Premier League goalscoring table.
Only six teams have scored more goals than Brentford this season, and while the Bees are completely safe from any relegation worries right now, making do without one of the Premier League’s best strikers will be a daunting challenge in the 2023-24 season.
It’s also not entirely clear who will step in for Toney, as the once-capped England striker has been nearly ever-present this season. Only goalkeeper David Raya and center back Ben Mee have played more minutes for Brentford this season. With Toney out of the squad as the Bees hosted West Ham on Sunday, manager Thomas Frank turned to winger Yoane Wissa as the team’s No. 9, who scoried Brentford’s second in a 2-0 win.
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