As if things couldn’t get any worse for Joey Barton; he was practically a spectator as Celtic put five past Rangers in the Old Firm derby, he then had a training ground bust-up with Andy Halliday before being told to stay away from training for a week, but it didn’t end there as he was then handed a three-week suspension from the club.
And now, to add insult to injury, the SFA have begun an investigation into the player following claims from a major high street bookmakers that the former Newcastle and Manchester City midfielder had been placing bets, despite the strict SFA rules that ban players from gambling on games anywhere in the world. Rumours suggest that Barton bet on Barcelona inflicting a heavy defeat on Celtic in the UEFA Champions League.
Section 31 of the SFA’s judicial panel protocol’s general disciplinary rules states: “No club, official, Team Official or other member of Team Staff, player, match official or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA shall gamble in any way on a football match.”
However, it’s not the first time that a player in Scottish football has been investigated for allegations of gambling and he becomes the third Rangers player to have been investigated for that reason. The launch of the investigation into the 34-year-old means at least one player in Scotland has faced allegations and an investigation into gambling behaviour in each of the last four years.
Former Inverness and Hearts midfielder, Ian Black, kicked off the betting investigations in September 2013 while he was playing for Rangers, amid claims he placed bets on 160 matches over a seven-year period, three of which were against his own team. He received a 10-match ban for his troubles, seven of which were suspended until the end of the season, as well as £7,500.
Dunfermline Athletic striker Michael Moffat was handed a six-game suspension in February 2014 while at Ayr United for placing seven bets on six games involving his own team, plus a further 150 bets on other matches.
Steve Simonsen didn’t have the easiest of times while at Rangers and in April last year he was handed a two-match ban with one suspended until the end of the season, after being found guilty of betting on 55 matches. 18 of those games were in the 2013/14 season and a further 37 in the following season. Simonsen claimed that he had misunderstood the SFA’s rules against gambling.
The most recent investigation before Barton was Partick Thistle’s Steven Lawless. The 24-year-old winger was accused of betting on 513 matches between December 2012 and March 2015, having been found guilty he served a two-match suspension at the end of the 2014-15 season and a further four matches at the ned of last season.
Barton, if found guilty, is expected to face charges from the SFA within days.
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