London (AFP) - Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been banned from all football-related activity for eight months over breaches of betting rules.
Toney, who was charged by the Football Association in November with 262 alleged breaches over a four-year period, has been suspended with "immediate effect".
The 27-year-old England international is banned until mid-January and has been fined £50,000 ($62,000) after he admitted to 232 of the breaches.
"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," an FA statement said on Wednesday.
"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."
An independent regulatory commission imposed the sanctions on Toney, who will not be allowed to train with his Brentford team-mates until September 17.
Toney will miss Brentford's last two fixtures this term at Tottenham on Saturday and against Manchester City on the final day of the campaign.
Toney, capped once by England, against Ukraine in March, has scored 21 goals in 35 appearances for Brentford this season.
Although he featured in an England squad before last year's World Cup, Toney was left out of Gareth Southgate's squad for the tournament in Qatar.
His absence will be a huge blow for the team after his goals played a key role in their rise to ninth place in the Premier League heading into the last two games of the season.
Brentford will wait for the publication of the written reasons for Toney's ban because taking their "next steps".
"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," a statement said.
"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."
Toney is not the first high-profile player to be banned for offences related to betting.
England defender Kieran Trippier, now with Newcastle, was banned for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 by the FA in 2020 after giving out information for others to bet on his transfer from Tottenham to Atletico Madrid.
In 2017, Joey Barton was banned for 18 months, reduced to 13 on appeal, while playing for Burnley after admitting placing 1,260 football-related bets over a 10-year period.
