Thomas Frank questions key a part of Ivan Toney’s ban
Toney pleaded responsible to 232 breaches of the FA’s betting guidelines and has been banned from football for eight months and isn’t allowed to coach with Brentford till half of the time period has been served on September 17.
The Brentford boss stated: “Yes, Ivan did something wrong but what I don’t get at all is how can you not let him be involved in football at all for the first four months?
“What do you gain from that? If you want to rehabilitate people you give them education, you do something, and now he is left on his own.
“There’s no doubt for me that the first four months he could be involved in football, he should be forced to go into a hundred schools to tell them about his football and background, that’s how it should work – but I’m a football coach, what do I know?
“If I can’t speak to him, then they will have to ban me. If I am not allowed to speak to him on a support level there must be something wrong. I think you’re allowed to contact people even when they’re in prison aren’t you? So I think I’m allowed.”
Toney’s ban was diminished by the unbiased regulatory fee after he was diagnosed with a gambling addiction by a psychiatry knowledgeable.
In March Brentford have been reported to be contemplating chopping ties with Hollywood Bets who’ve been their most important package sponsor since July 2021. And Frank mentioned the hyperlink between soccer and playing sponsors and referred to as for higher methods to assist gamers.
“I think it’s definitely something we need to look into,” Frank added. “The cleaner the football industry could be, the better.
“Ivan has made some mistakes, now we need to get through that and we will support him. But there is no doubt that football and gambling’s relationship need to be reviewed and I think we can only look at ourselves first.
“We got a massive reminder (Toney ban), do we do enough to educate our players? I think that’s a big thing, I think the football authorities have a massive task to make sure we do this much better.”
Brentford host treble-chasing Manchester City on the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday the place a win relying on different outcomes may see them qualify for the Europa Conference League – the Bees are ninth and path seventh-placed Aston Villa by two factors.
“I believe that anything can happen in football,” Frank stated.
“I had a big belief before the season that we’ll do top 10, of course I didn’t know (that Brentford would be contending for Europe) but I am so pleased we are in the mix and have a chance. But we just need to beat the best team in the world.”