EXCLUSIVE
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony and Simon Jordan clashed on the outcome of Ivan Toney’s eight-month ban, in a fascinating talkSPORT exclusive.
The pair put forward their views on Friday after the former Posh striker was hit with a ban that will keep him out of action for current club Brentford until 2024.
3
Toney was charged with 262 breaches of the FA’s betting rules between February 2017 and January 2021.
The FA withdrew 30 of the breaches leaving the Brentford striker admitting to the remaining 232.
As a result, Toney was banned until January 16, 2024 and slapped with a £50,000 fine.
A number of the charges relate to Toney’s spell at Peterborough and when MacAnthony was quizzed on his club being bet on or against, the Posh chairman revealed it wasn’t a big deal.
He was mostly concerned about his club potentially missing out on a sell-on free.
“I don’t care about it,” MacAnthony told talkSPORT about Toney's ban. “I got the news months before it was all coming out. A pal of mine in the media messaged me one night in Florida.
“When I saw the message I thought, could this season get any worse for me, because we were expecting him to get sold for £85million this summer!
“In my mind and with everything going on in the last 12 months, I thought just add it to the list.”
Most read in Football
3
Toney’s punishment has split opinion and MacAnthony has made clear his feeling that the FA have acted too harshly on the 27-year-old.
Instead of handing out big punishments, MacAnthony believes Toney's sanction does not fit the crime and more perspective was needed.
“I love Ivan, his dad’s great, but there’s a problem in football and it’s not just Ivan Toney," the Posh boss added.
“There’s hundreds of footballers right now as we speak betting on football, we just don’t know it.
“Unfortunately, yes Ivan got caught, he shouldn’t have done it, but he didn’t kill anybody.
“The reality is this, he obviously has an addiction, he has a problem and I’m not sure sending someone out to the middle of nowhere for the next eight months is the right thing to do and the right thing to help.
“He shouldn’t be banned from training, he shouldn't be banned from his friends, his teammates, his manager. Ban him from playing, fine, but what are you trying to do with his character?”
However, former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan hit back, claiming the FA were right in their zero-tolerance approach and that Toney knew betting on football was prohibited.
The talkSPORT pundit said: “People are saying look at sports relations with gambling. Oh come off it! It’s his individual responsibility. People are making choices to be or not bet.
3
“If football wants to make this a particular solution to a problem that will compromise the integrity of the game, then there has to be significant consequences.
“This isn’t about rehabilitation, it’s about punishment. You don't send someone to prison to rehabilitate them, you send them to prison to punish them and maybe along the way the rehabilitation kicks in.
“You didn’t have to bet on football did you? You know football is a forbidden fruit [for betting]. If you want to bet, bet on boxing or another sport.
“If you want the next generation of players to fear the consequence of it, then you take down a big beast, and unfortunately make them the consequence of their action.”
YOU MIGHT LIKE
