THE FA have asked Fifa for Ivan Toney’s eight-month ban from football to be enforced WORLDWIDE.
The Brentford striker, 27, was handed the suspension on Wednesday after breaching gambling regulations.
And now he could be blocked from a move away from England as the FA look to extend his ban outside of the country.
It had been mooted that a possible option for Toney was to go out on loan to a foreign club while he serves his FA suspension.
It would take an extraordinary sequence of events for the striker to play football during his ban.
In theory, if Brentford were to rip up his contract he would be free to immediately sign for a club abroad.
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But Fifa WILL enforce his ban as soon as they respond to the FA.
Similar examples of this have been seen in the past with the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Kieran Trippier.
They were both playing abroad when the FA charged them of breaching betting regulations.
But Fifa’s global suspension saw Sturridge leave Turkish side Trabzonspor, while Trippier served a 10-week suspension at Atletico Madrid.
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More recently, Tottenham sporting director Fabio Paratici was banned by the Italian FA following his role in the alleged financial irregularities scandal at Juventus.
In theory, he could have continued his role at Spurs as the suspension only pertained to Italian football.
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But with the understanding that Fifa would have stepped in had he attempted to continue in North London, Paratici handed in his resignation.
In a statement regarding Toney’s ban, the FA said: “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.
“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.
“His sanctions were subsequently imposed by an independent Regulatory Commission following a personal hearing.
“He is permitted to return to training only with his club for the final four months of his suspension starting from 17 September 2023.
“The independent Regulatory Commission’s written reasons for these sanctions will be published in due course, and The FA will wait to review them before commenting further.”
The decision wrecks Toney’s year, just two months after he made his England bow as a late replacement for skipper Harry Kane in the Euro 2024 qualifying win over Ukraine.
Toney, 27, the third-highest scorer in the Prem this season, with 20 goals and only below Erling Haaland and Kane in the goal charts, was a certainty to be named in Gareth Southgate’s squad for next month’s qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia.
Now, though, he is ineligible for selection and will not be allowed to play for his country until March.
Toney’s charges related to a four-year period between February 2017 and January 2021 when the striker was playing for Scunthorpe and Wigan – on loan from Newcastle – and subsequently Peterborough and the Bees.
Toney appeared before an independent FA disciplinary commission yesterday in an attempt to argue down his looming ban – which will surely rule him out of a big-money summer switch.
Chelsea had been linked with a summer swoop for Brentford’s talisman.
He will begin serving his suspension for Saturday’s clash with Tottenham, and will also be absent for the final day match-up with Manchester City.
Toney will continue to serve his ban over the fallow summer months, with a view to returning to action in January.
There was never a suggestion that Toney placed wagers on any matches in which he was involved.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
