Joey Barton, the former Manchester City, Newcastle and QPR midfielder has today been banned from playing professional football for eighteen months after he admitted an FA betting misconduct charge. He is also being fined £30,000.
Barton committed 1,260 bets in the past ten years with the average stake being £150, even though the FA has a rule that any footballer in the top eight tiers should not bet, otherwise bans will be introduced.
The Englishman said in a statement on his website that he is addicted to gambling, but also disappointed about the harshness of the sanction and will appeal it.
He also said that he is now forced into an early retirement.
The Englishman even placed bets on his own team to lose when he didn’t play which he said ‘On some occasions, my placing of the bet on my team to lose was an expression of anger and frustration at not being picked or being unable to play’. Bets that he placed when he started included in 2006 when he bet on himself to become the first goalscorer in a game against QPR, which he lost because Richard Dunne scored first. However, he denies ‘match fixing’, an offence which can bring a lifetime football ban.
Barton has always had a reputation of being football’s bad boy. He got sentenced for six months in prison after hitting a man twenty times and leaving a teenager with broken teeth; he assaulted Ousmane Dabo; got banned by Rangers after a training ground altercation; and has tweeted many abusive things about people.
Moving on, Barton has not only placed bets on football. He has placed them on many sports, and said that even when he was a boy his family allowed him to bet on things like the Grand National.
The 34-year old joined Burnley this January after his nightmare stay at Rangers, and will never play professionally again after the ban.