The Football Association have slapped Joey Barton with an 18 month ban for placing bets on football matches, effectively ending the Burnley midfielder’s career and clearing a path for him to spend all his time exclusively on football betting on sports betting kiosks around the world.
Barton accepted the FA’s charges that accused him of having placed a whopping 1,260 bets on football matches between 2006 and 2013, but was less than happy with all the free time that will be coming his way.
“The decision effectively forces me into an early retirement from playing football,” grumbled Barton in a statement posted on his website.
“I think if the FA is truly serious about tackling the culture of gambling in football, it needs to look at its own dependence on the gambling companies, their role in football and in sports broadcasting, rather than just blaming the players who place a bet.”
Many people enjoy betting with a pay per head sportsbook, and why shouldn’t they? If they’re responsible and know when to cut their losses, surely they should be left to enjoy this perfectly legal pastime.
While Barton calls in to question the FA’s own relationship with betting, he fails to realise that football will happily sell its soul to the highest bidder long before it develops anything remotely approaching a conscience. In fairness, Barton’s highlighting of the FA’s contradictory stance on one of Britain’s favourite pastimes should be evaluated further by the top brass of the board. But Barton should also understand betting represents a conflict of interest for someone of his occupation; whereas fans of the sport watching from home are free to place a mobile bet unhindered by sporting organizations like the FA. If he really wants to spend his Saturday afternoon at William Hill slumped in a seat, arse crack hanging out, clutching a can of Stella and ten grand down, then give up the day job now. A man of his salary is not exactly the target market of these companies. He should know better, maybe this is something he will want to raise the next time he’s on Question Time. Right, back to the point of the FA essentially prostituting itself for the benefit of these tycoons. There are at least some people that are leading the fightback against these modern-day Pied Pipers, through what is known as matched betting. It enables the customer to take advantage of free bets to snatch profits from the ghoulish hands of the likes Mr Hill and Mr Ladbroke. Punter 1-0 Bookies.
Back to Mr Barton who has said he plans to appeal the FA’s charge, which means you can fully expect betting companies to start offering odds on Barton’s chances of success if they haven’t already done so.
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