The Brentford striker was close to making it to the World Cup, but instead faces a long clearance process with the Football Association.
Ivan Toney was Brentford’s great hero in Manchester. PDO
The English Football Association FA accuses ten goals scored in the Premier League this season Ivan Toney for violating betting rules between 2017 and 2021.
Toney is said to have broken the rules restricting betting no less than 232 times. The situation is serious from the player’s point of view, as the Daily Mail, for example, believes that Toney could be banned for up to six months if Toney bet on the events of the matches he played.
Toney represented teams in Scunthorpe, Wigan, Peterborough and Brentford at the time of the offences.
Just last week, Toney was in the headlines in a completely different way. In the last Premier League round before the break, he scored a last-minute winner as Brentford went for a sensational 1-2 win at Manchester City’s home turf. Before that, he was a strong candidate for England’s World Cup team after being third in the Premier League’s goal exchange Harry Kane and Erling Haaland’s after.
Head coach of the Three Lions Gareth Southgate however, he didn’t choose top man Toney for Qatar. It has been speculated on social media that Toney’s World Cup selection was watered down by rule violations and not so much by game performances. Toney was in England’s last group before the competition team was announced and commented at the beginning of November that playing in the World Cup is his big dream.
The Football Association might have thought that it does not want extra noise in the national team during the World Cup. For example, the Portuguese team has received a lot of unnecessary attention for its captain Cristiano Ronaldo club team messes.
Toney has about a week to respond to the union’s accusations. That would seem to be enough time, as the World Cup in Qatar suspended the Premier League matches for a month and the games will not resume until Boxing Day.
Toney’s team, Brenford, will not comment on the matter until it is fully processed.
Two years ago, he was also part of the England national team Kieran Trippier was banned for ten weeks when he shared information about his club transfer for betting purposes. Toney may face a bigger sanction due to the repetition of the offence.