Harry Toffolo of Nottingham Forest has been given a suspended ban and a £20,000 fine after breaking betting rules 375 times in three years.
- The Nottingham Forest defender has been charged for breaking betting rules
- The charge comes less than two months after Ivan Toney received a lengthy ban
- Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off’
Nottinghamshire Forest The FA has awarded Harry Toffolo a suspended five-month ban and a £20,956 fine for breaking betting rules.
If he violates the regulations again, the defender’s five-month suspended ban will be imposed.
The FA claimed in July that Toffolo had infringed betting rules 375 times in a three-year period spanning from 22 January 2014 – when the player was on Norwich’s books – to 18 March 2017.
‘Nottingham Forest’s Harry Toffolo has been handed a five-month penalty, which has been suspended until the conclusion of the 2024/25 season, and a £20,956.22 fine for misconduct in respect to our betting rules,’ they announced in a fresh statement on Wednesday.
‘After a hearing, an independent Regulatory Commission imposed sanctions on the defender for violating FA Rule E1(b) 375 times between 22 January 2014 and 18 March 2017.
‘The Regulatory Commission’s written reasons for these decisions will be published in due course’.
Toffolo, 27, was a consistent feature in Forest’s side last season and made 21 appearances in total throughout 2022-23.
Toffolo’s violation of betting laws occurred between 22 January 2014 and 18 March 2017.
He was on loan at Swindon in 2014-15 before moving on to Rotherham and Peterborough the following season.
He then spent the 2016-17 season on loan with Scunthorpe United, around the time the alleged betting violations were resolved.
Toffolo began his career at Lincoln City in League Two before going to Huddersfield in the Championship, where he played regularly.
The incident came four months after Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney was banned from sport for eight months for violating betting rules.
Toney pleaded guilty to the majority of the 262 betting offences brought by the FA last year, according to Mail Sport, and an independent disciplinary committee imposed an eight-month suspension and a £50,000 fine following a hearing this week.
In announcing Toney’s sentence in May, the FA disclosed that Toney had accepted to 232 of the 262 allegations, with the rest being dropped by the governing body.
The punishment will keep Toney from playing until January 16, 2021, which is longer than expected given the amount of violations and the fact that the bets were placed over a four-year period between February 2017 and January 2021.
Toney was not even able to workout with Brentford until September, leaving him with little choice but to work out on his own in order to keep fit.
In addition to missing Toney’s goals and link-up play – his tally of 20 made him the third-highest scorer in the Premier League last season behind Erling Haaland and Harry Kane – the lengthy ban will also have major financial implications and could cost Brentford tens of millions of pounds in transfer revenue.
