Betting scandal, a fatal error in English football affecting more and more players

This season in the Premier League will be surely remembered by the sanction suffered by the Newcastle’s midfielder Sandro Tonali, who was punished with an eight-month ban from football activities due to illegal betting activities when he was playing for AC Milan, his previous club before joining the Magpies last summer. However, English football is full of similar scandals to the one that faced the Italian playmaker.

In this sense, it would be worth remembering the sanction suffered by the English striker Ivan Toney this campaign, as the Brentford player was accused of breaking the rules of the English Federation (FA) on 262 occasions for betting between 2017 and 2021, and  was sanctioned with eight months without competing, four from which were also prohibited from training with the rest of their teammates. In addition, he received a financial fine of 50,000 euros. His case is one of the bloodiest since he bet against his own team.

In this respect, another Newcastle United player who shared the dressing room with Tonali already faced a ten-week sanction in 2021 while he was playing for Atletico de Madrid. We talk about the full back Kieran Trippier, who was sanctioned for revealing information about his signing to those around him, who used it to benefit from betting houses. The Englishman was sanctioned by the FA and Atletico was left without the full-back for a good handful of games.

The sanctions can darken the players’ career

These sanctions could darken a career, as it happened to the Liverpool former player Daniel Sturridge, who tipped off his brother to Sevilla (in the end it didn't happen) and was punished with four months of inactivity, which led him to remain out of the spotlight for some time, and after that he could never recovered the great level he showed with the Reds.