Ivan Toney suspended for sports betting in England: Hypocrisy, when you hold us!

Ivan Toney, 20 goals in 33 Premier League appearances this season, will not be fielded by Thomas Frank when Brentford host ogre Manchester City at the Gtech Community Stadium on May 28. Ivan Toney, in fact, will not play again until January 17, 2024, having been found guilty of 232 breaches of the FA’s code of conduct, paragraph E8, on sports betting.

Eight months of suspension, it is heavy, when the career of a professional player is long of fifteen years for the luckiest. Toney only discovered the Premier League in 2021, when he was already twenty-five years old. A journey like Jamie Vardy, then. A great story, too, stopped short by the strict application of a regulation that does not go into detail when it comes to punishing footballers who have given in to the temptation to bet.

Toney rather victim than culprit?

In other words, Toney is not a criminal. He is rather a victim, the umpteenth English footballer to have spent too much time at a bookmaker, which is much easier these days than when Ray Parlor or Paul Merson toasted their wages at the dispensary nearest Highbury. A few clicks, done. This is how addictions are born. Every year, an estimated 400 Britons die from it, at their own hands. Thousands of others lose their job, their home, their spouse. No, these people are not criminals. These people need our help, and the help of their communities.

Yes, Toney crossed the yellow line, and recognized it. But here he is treated the way some judges treat shoplifters – ouse, in jail! – while they are content to fine City fraudsters.

The FA, however, binds with bookmakers…

The reaction of the English public leaves little doubt about his sympathies. No one tried to justify the offenses of the player, who knew exactly what he was doing and knew the risks he was exposing himself to. But almost everyone pointed out that the rigor of the commission dispatched by the FA was hypocritical.

Who has the FA chosen as its official amateur football sponsor? Pitching In. What is Pitching In? An ‘initiative’ to support ‘roots’ football, we are assured. Except that this initiative is entirely financed by the Entain group, that is to say one of the Molochs of sports betting in the United Kingdom, more than four billion in annual income shared by brands known to all British bettors. : bWin, Coral, Ladbroke, Sportingbet and some others.

Yes, the FA forces its amateur clubs to flock their shirts with a brand directly controlled by the bookmakers.

However, one would be tempted to say that this is only a detail when one evokes the osmosis of English football and sports betting operators, many of whom operate at the limit of legality, or even outright outside it, and that this English football is careful not to question. You should have heard him yell when the British government decided to overhaul the regulations governing the activities of bookmakers in the United Kingdom.

…as do many Premier League clubs

Ultimately, the lobby of bookies – and football – won his case. The White Paper recently published by the British authorities suggests only superficial reforms that will not jeopardize the mutually beneficial relationship between online betting operators and the elite of English football, not to mention its number 1 broadcaster, Sky Sports, which has its own brand, Skybet, official sponsor of the English Football League.

And who plays Ivan Toney for? Brentford. Main sponsor: Hollywood Bets, a South African bookmaker. Who owns Brentford? Matthew Benham, owner of Smartodds, a “statistical research company” whose clients are high rollers (whose identity is unknown) who intend to beat the bookmakers at their own game. Benham, by the way, is the former business partner of Tony Bloom, owner of Brighton, a former poker player who made his fortune with Starlizard, another “statistical research companywhich taps into exactly the same market as Smartodds.

The Premier League clubs have promised that, on their own initiative, they will no longer (but not immediately!) take as shirt sponsors these strange operators who primarily target a clientele of bettors from China and other Extreme countries. East, where it is – but who cares? – that betting on football matches is illegal. And many, even most, and perhaps all of them, are controlled by the triads of Macao, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The beautiful hypocrisy of English football

Let them be reassured. If they will no longer be able to advertise their brands on the chest of Premier League players, as they do today with Fulham, Newcastle or Crystal Palace, among others, they will still be able to fall back on the sleeves of the shirts. and on the LED panels of PL stadiums, where their messages will continue to circulate in Vietnamese, Thai and Mandarin.

Steven Gerrard was the official ambassador of the Chinese website Yabo when he was Rangers coach. Yabo, a criminal network, was dismantled by the Chinese authorities in 2021. Gerrard then moved on: to Aston Villa, and to another Asian operator, M88, to which he still serves as a sandwich man. The PL found nothing to complain about.

It’s not double standards. It’s much worse than that. It is a riot of hypocrisy that should put English football to shame. But greed makes you blind. If you have to punish someone, you might as well punish Ivan Toney. Make an example, after all, what does it cost? Nothing.