Ivan Toney has revealed that he was barred from restaurants and denied car insurance because of the betting scandal that resulted in him being banned from football for eight months.
The Brentford and England striker has also said that, during his disciplinary process, he “took responsibility” for some bets that he does not believe he placed in order to accelerate the situation.
Toney, who will not be allowed to play again until January, has opened up on his absence from football and his gambling problems in the below interview with The Diary of a CEO podcast.
Toney was issued with his suspension in May after he had admitted to 232 breaches of the Football Associations’ betting rules. As part of that sanction, he was also banned from even returning to training with Brentford until mid-September.
Toney said that he feels like he is currently in “football prison” and said he believes that “somebody was out to stop me playing for England” at last year’s World Cup.
The first reports of the investigation into Toney emerged just a few days before Gareth Southgate named his England squad for the tournament in Qatar. Mark Bullingham, the FA’s chief executive, has insisted that Toney had been left out purely on footballing grounds.
Toney described missing the World Cup as his “lowest point” and said the news of the allegations against him had unexpected consequences for his personal and social life.
“I remember at the time, when there were allegations, I wanted to go into a restaurant,” Toney said. “And they were like ‘no, we are not taking you.’ A restaurant. [They said] ‘because of the allegations, we are not allowing you in’. I was actually so confused.
“For starters, it’s allegations. Secondly, you’re a restaurant. How can you not let someone in due to bad press? I was just baffled. My car insurance, they would not insure me due to the whole scandal. It was baffling.”
Among Toney’s breaches were 13 bets on his own team to lose, between August 2017 and March 2018, in matches in which he did not play.
‘I took responsibility so the process could get cleared up’
He has now said: “On the 232 breaches, there were some bets in there that I don’t recall making but I was willing to take responsibility just to get the process all over and done with.
“I think the bets that were on my team to lose, when I was not playing, I think the majority of those were within the bets that personally I think I did not do. But I still took responsibility for them, so the whole process could get cleared up.”
Toney told the podcast that he previously regarded the betting rules for players as a “grey area” and said it was not clear to him what he could and could not gamble on.
He has given up gambling entirely now, saying he “would not allow himself” to ever become involved in betting again.
Toney also revealed that he initially thought that denying everything would resolve the problem, when the allegations were first made. “I thought, ‘if I just deny it, then that is all fine,” he said. “That they would not find anything. Then everything went through and I admitted to what I had done.”
‘Football is big on mental health – then the FA do this’
Toney feels that an example has been made of him, due to his profile and his status as one of the Premier League’s top strikers, and said that the ban from even training with his team-mates would “break” other players.
“Keeping me away from the ground, if I was not as strong as I was in my head, that would break some people,” he said. “We talk about mental health and these things. What is that doing to a player who is not allowed in the environment?
“Keeping them away from the training ground, knowing that football is their life and is all they have done from such a young age. How is that going to help them at all?
“The whole football community is big on mental health and then the FA go and do this, and push me away from the whole football environment. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. That is the last thing I want.”
Asked if he is counting down the days before his return to training next month, he said: “I literally am. I am like a kid at Christmas. It’s like being in football prison at the moment. When I am around the boys it will get a little easier.”
On his return to competitive action in January, Toney added: “There are a lot of haters and doubters out there thinking ‘he isn’t going to be the same when he comes back’. Actually, they are right. I am going to be a different man, I am going to be even better than that guy who scored those goals before. I am built different. My mentality is different.”
Toney has been consistently linked with a move away from Brentford but he said he would only depart for the “right club”. The 27-year-old said he is a Liverpool fan but also expressed his admiration for Arsenal.
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