Barton loses shirt with 18-month FA bet ban

Joey Barton has called on football to reconsider its links with the gambling industry after the Football Association banned him for 18 months for breaking its betting rules.

The governing body imposed the sanction because he placed 1,260 bets on matches between March 2006 and May 2013. He was also fined £30,000.

At 34, the Burnley midfielder, pictured, believes the ban will effectively end his career but will appeal against its length. He has not yet confirmed this to the FA and there is no guarantee he would be allowed to play pending that appeal.

The questions Barton raised about football and gambling will provoke the most debate and the former Rangers player wrote: “I think if the FA is truly serious about tackling the culture of gambling in football, it needs to look at its own dependence on the gambling companies, their role in football and in sports broadcasting, rather than just blaming the players who place a bet.

“Surely they need to accept there is a huge clash between their rules and the culture that surrounds the modern game, where anyone who watches football on television or in the stadium is bombarded by marketing, advertising and sponsorship by betting companies, and where much of the coverage now, on Sky for example, is intertwined with the broadcasters’ own gambling interests.”

“It is like asking a recovering alcoholic to spend all his time in a pub or a brewery. If the FA is serious about tackling gambling I would urge it to reconsider its own dependence on the gambling industry. I say that knowing that every time I pull on my team’s shirt, I am advertising a betting company.”

Burnley are sponsored by Dafabet, making them one of 10 Premier League clubs who advertise gambling firms on their shirts.

The FA tightened the rules on betting in 2014 to stop players in England’s leading eight divisions betting on any footballrelated activity, anywhere in the world. Previously, players were not allowed to bet on games or competitions they were involved in or could influence.

Barton’s statement starts with an acknowledgement that football should have gambling rules and an acceptance he has broken them.

Describing himself as an addict who grew up in a culture where gambling was normalised, the Liverpudlian admits to placing more than 15,000 bets on sport since 2004.

But he went on to say he is very disappointed at the harshness of the sanction and suggests he has been punished more seriously because of his reputation.

Barton has served numerous FA bans for misconduct during his 15-year professional career, including a onematch ban from the Scottish FA for placing 44 football bets while playing for Rangers last year. He also twice been convicted of assault, spending 11 weeks in prison in 2008.

Since then, however, Barton has tried to control his temper, tackle his drinking and cultivate interests in philosophy and politics. The latter has led to him campaigning for gay rights and appearing on Question Time. Barton’s statement lists the bets he made that the FA has flagged up as the most problematic, as they involved his club, although he was only playing in five of these games. These 30 bets, made between 2006 and 2011, resulted in only three wins and losses of more than £3,000.

Addressing the central issue that he made several bets on his own team to lose, he stressed he has given everything in every game he has played and was not involved in the squads for any of those games.

“I had no more ability to influence the outcome than had I been betting on darts, snooker, or a cricket match in the West Indies,” he wrote, admitting he was sometimes expressing his frustration at not being fit or picked to play.

He concluded by noting the only players to be banned for more than 12 months for gambling have bet against their own teams and played in those matches. Players who bet against their teams but did not play in those matches have never been banned for longer than six months, he claimed.

Crystal Palace midfielder Andros Townsend was given a four-month ban for gambling offences in 2013 while at Tottenham, but three months were suspended. Bournemouth’s Dan Gosling was fined £30,000 a year later during his Newcastle spell. But last season, nonleague manager Nick Bunyard was given a three-year ban for betting against two teams he managed.

“Like asking a recovering alcoholic to spend all his time in a pub” “No more ability to influence the outcome than had I been betting on darts”