18 months
Placing 1260 bets over a 10 year period.
| + Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
18 months
Placing 1260 bets over a 10 year period.
Hard to have much sympathy given his previous but I agree with him here 100%.Originally Posted by Michael Morris
18 months
Placing 1260 bets over a 10 year period.
"I accept I broke the rules governing professional footballers, but I feel the penalty is heavier than it might be for other less controversial players," said Barton.
"I have fought addiction to gambling and provided the FA with a medical report about my problem. I’m disappointed it wasn’t taken into proper consideration.
"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."*
On the face of it this length of ban is utterly ridiculous and will cost Barton millions and probably retire him too.
Can't believe it tbh and suspect maybe there's more info to come on why so long
I think the main bone for the FA was he was betting on his own team to lose, even though he wasn't involved in playing in those games he would have had some sort of info into how the team was doing injury wise or other info that may have improved his chances.
He even bet on himself as a first goal scorer and lost...
Don't see how anyone can have any sympathy for Barton going on his previous track record. But this went on for 10 years. It's not a one off by any means. Think the fine and ban appropriate to say the least. But, there again, he did mention the FA's dependence on gambling campanies their role in football and sports broadcasting. Bet that didn't go down very well with the FA authorities and ultimately will do him no favours either. Sooner the government make the FA clean up its act the better.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. As has been said, Barton has been gambling for years when he knew it was wrong and bases his defence on the fact that his case wasn't as bad as others. He should count his blessings he has earned plenty of money over the years whilst being crooked.
What I do agree with him on is that the FA have double standards and are more than happy to get huge sums of money from the tens of bookies for advertising.
The whole of football is rotten to the core! It does seem that the ones that are being dealt with harshly are cherry picked, no tears from me on this one.
He certainly gets some sympathy because addiction is something that many people find hard to accept, to begin with, and even harder to overcome. He's right when he says the game is all about gambling now, half the teams are sponsored by firms and there are constant adverts during games.
However, I think he also needs to weigh up that he's had plenty of time to do something about this. Everyone knows that footballers can't bet on games, certainly not on with their own club. He's done this over his entire career- there must have been times when he's caught himself and known he shouldn't be doing it, and mulled over whether he should get professional help. He will have known that he would be punished if he was caught. But for over a decade he chose not to, and collected many more millions than he will lose out on now.
He should be counting himself lucky that this happened at the end of his career. Instead, if you can bear to read his long statement, he says things like "I should point out that the last of these bets against my own team was six years ago (and in a reserve game), when I was going through a particularly troubled period, and when the FA were not nearly as hard on gambling as they are now."
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote