The whole Tonali thing rubbed me up the wrong way because of how Newcastle handled it, sure they have to support their player etc but these are grown adults, very wealthy adults at that and they’re not stupid.
They’re very well aware of the rules and know gambling within the sport is illegal, so I find it hard to sympathise with players like Tonali and his cabal. You’ve done an illegal thing and there are consequences for it… that’s it really.
What made me laugh was Newcastle/the player angling it as an addiction problem - which it may be in some cases like Ivan Toney’s, but the majority of players get by fine without gambling as far as we know. There are rules for a reason, you already live privileges lives, why put your career or the games integrity at risk?
Out of interest, what’s your opinion on the Sturridge case? Banned for giving out privileged information but my understanding is that he was discussing with his cousin what club he might move to. Technically it was against the rules but aren’t the rules clearly wrong here?
I used to agree with you - not gambling seemed like such a small sacrifice to keep the integrity of the game. However, seeing Sturridge found guilty for discussing his future with a family member made me distrust the judgement of the FA and PL etc. It’s not about sporting integrity, it’s about protecting the financial interests of the betting companies.
And this is before getting into issues of addiction, or forcing players to endorse a product they’re not allowed to use.