WE’LL BATTLE 12-YEAR BAN!
STRATFORD TOWN chairman Jed McCrory is fighting to help defender Kynan Isaac have his monster 12-anda-half year ban for betting reduced.
McCrory has taken Isaac’s case up with Stratford-upon-Avon MP Nadeem Zahawi and Polly Handford, the FA’s Director of Legal and Governance.
And like Isaac himself, McCrory is outraged that the ex-Reading player was hit with such a long suspension for betting infringements in October of last year – whereas Brentford and England striker Toney escaped with an eight-month ban six months later.
He is also fuming Isaac was banned by the FA as soon as he was charged. Toney was allowed to play on and even picked by his country until his suspension was announced
The FA also asked the police to investigate Isaac – and they opted to take no action.
Isaac, 30, was found guilty of deliberately earning a booking while playing for Southern Premier League Stratford Town in their televised FA
Cup 5-1 home defeat by Shrewsbury in November 2021.
He was charged with spot-fixing in August after it was alleged his 84th-minute caution was part of a plot to beat the bookies, landing a ten-year ban for the deliberate booking.
Isaac, who is now training to become a driving instructor, was also hit with a further 18-month suspension for breaching FA rules on betting on matches and an extra 12 months for failing to co-operate with the probe.
Toney was not charged with anything like getting himself deliberately booked, but in May he admitted 232 breaches of the FA’s rules on betting.
He was expected to be hit with a heavy punishment, but the extent of the ban surprised many within the game.
Earlier this week Isaac – who under the ban can’t return to the game until he is 41 – revealed he is appealing against the ban, and asking the PFA to support him.
The NLP has seen emails sent by McCrory to Zahawi and Handford in which he goes into battle for Isaac.
Addiction
He wrote to Zahawi: “How can a Non-League footballer struggling to have a living get banned for 12 years and an England international get eight months and be offered support for his gambling habit and his mental well-being, while Kynan was just binned off.
“Kynan’s ban should be ended immediately on the basis of the Toney sentencing and he should be allowed to play sport for his mental health, alongside supporting his family.
“No support was offered to Kynan to help him with his gambling addiction – he was just thrown out of the game with no thought-process to his mental health of a young man who has had the rejection from professional football three times, alongside the need to feed his family.
“This decision, with all the money at the top end of that game, is disgraceful and yet again shows the disproportionate view in football of the haves and have-nots.”
In his email to Handford, McCrory states unfair bans for lesser-known players has become commonplace.
“This has been happening in football for far too long,” he writes. “How do they justify this type of sentence?”
He also questions the validity and expertise of the disciplinary panels that hand out the punishments.
“I am delighted the FA has a duty to investigate all breaches of the betting rules and take appropriate disciplinary action where necessary.
“My issue is the justice system that you rely on is allowed to be adjudicated by an outside source.
“This type of system has no set sentences. There are thousands of debatable sentences that have been issued through the independent regulatory committee.
“Who employs them? The FA. But who regulates them and their sentencing in line with civil law? I would like DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) to review and investigate the sentences. They simply can not be quantified.”