Barton Banned 18 Months for Betting

Burnley midfielder Joey Barton was banned for 18 months by the Football Association for placing bets on games. The former Manchester City and Newcastle player made over 1,250 wagers between March, 2006 and May 2016. Players in England’s top eight tiers are prohibited from betting on matches. In total, he made more than 15,000 wagers since 2004.

Barton admitted to betting on his own games, with many bets on his teams to lose. But he says he was inactive in those matches he best against his teams. Plans to appeal the length of the suspension, which he said was excessive, are in the works.

“I am very disappointed at the harshness of the sanction,” he wrote on his personal website. “The decision effectively forces me into an early retirement from playing football. To be clear from the outset here this is not match fixing and at no point in any of this is my integrity in question.”

He pointed out that other players who bet against their teams and didn’t play received six month suspensions.

Barton said he has gambling problems, but his reason for betting was the same as many of us.

“I like watching sports and predicting the outcome,” he wrote. “Set alongside what we are privileged to earn as footballers, my betting stakes are relatively small. Betting for me, is less about how much money I win or lose, and more about whether I can correctly predict the outcome of the game I’m watching.”

Barton opened the account in his own name, using his address and passport for verification. He never hid what he was doing. Nor did he use a “beard” to place wagers for him.

“Throughout my career I am someone who has made mistakes and owned up to those mistakes and tried to learn from them,” he said. “I intend to do that here. I accept that this is one more mess I got into because of my own behaviour.”