Brentford boss Thomas Frank has scorned the Football Association for how 'closely linked' football and gambling are in the wake of Ivan Toney's impending ban from action for the Bees.
Toney joined Brentford in the summer of 2020 for a fee of around £10million from Peterborough United, and instantly hit it off in west London with 30 Championship goals in a single season. Having become one of the most sought-after strikers in the Premier League following their promotion to the Premier League, it appeared that he had the world at his feet - quite literally, with a World Cup spot seeming likely ahead of Qatar in November.
But it soon came to public attention that Toney had Originally been charged with 232 alleged breaches of gambling rules in November, with the aforementioned charges coming to light between February 2017 and January 2021. And, in a hearing in December, Toney was charged with 30 more.
Having admitted breaching FA rules, it is expected that Toney could face a six-month ban from April onwards, which bizarrely would suit Brentford given that the Premier League is out of operation over the June and July months. But Frank still claims that his striker has been hard done by; with gambling sponsors being adorned on almost half of Premier League shirts, he has called for more educational help by the FA.
Frank said: "I think football and betting are so closely linked, also in other sports industries. I think it's not right from my perspective.
"I think there were some really good articles from iNews and The Guardian or something like that about the influence of gambling for footballers and what it does.
"I think the education part is crucial for everyone because obviously there have been a lot of cases where potentially it could have been different.”
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