Barton appeal is not a gamble

JOEY BARTON has given his first interview since the FA suspended him for 18 months for breaching betting rules.

In it, he points out he has been banned, effectively, for 75 games.

Mainly, he believes, because he’s got form with the authorities, and it’s easy to make an example out of a bad boy – and make it look as though, despite the FA being heavily in bed with gambling firms to the point where Ladbrokes are their “official betting partner”, they don’t really approve.

Sympathy has to be tempered for someone who so flagrantly broke the rules, who was either stupid or arrogant to keep doing it over 10 years, especially after the FA sent him a warning letter.

But what Barton (above) will point out at his appeal next month is that he is an addict who needed help, that he did his betting very publicly with a Betfair account, under no pseudonym, and he basically did weekly coupons like football punters.

Plus, most were under a fiver each, and he only played in two of the matches, both of which he backed his side to win, but lost.

The Sunday Times interview is worth reading simply for Barton’s contextual analysis of his ban.

He said: “Luis Suarez racially insults Patrice Evra. He bites a player. John Terry abuses Anton Ferdinand. Eight and 10 games for Suarez. Four for Terry. That’s 22 games total. For Cantona’s kung-fu kick it’s nine months, say 48 games.

“I’m getting all that in one hit. I’ve basically kung-fu-ed a fan, racially abused two players and bitten another in one go — and more — in FA eyes. For doing a football coupon.”

If he’s half as persuasive in his appeal, and the FA have the honesty to admit they’ve got their own gambling problem, he might be in with a shout of getting that ban reduced.