Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has pleaded with the Football Association not to ‘throw the book’ at Sandro Tonali by reminding them he is battling a gambling ‘illness’ – and says he will be ‘hugely disappointed’ if his ban is extended.
The Italy midfielder is currently serving a 10-month ban following an investigation into illegal betting in his home country, and that expires on August 27.
But Tonali now faces the prospect of an additional suspension after the FA hit him with 50 fresh charges of gambling on matches AFTER his £52million move to Newcastle from AC Milan in the summer.
Mail Sport reported on Thursday that the club expect any punishment to be served concurrently with the worldwide ban imposed by Italian authorities in October, but that will be at the discretion of an independent FA regulatory commission.
Howe, though, believes Tonali has ‘suffered’ enough, and says that any further sanction that keeps him out beyond August is unfair.
Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali has been charged by the FA for 50 breaches of their betting rules
Eddie Howe believes Tonali has suffered enough as the midfielder battles with an ‘illness’
Tonali is serving a 10-month ban that expires in August but is at risk of an further suspension
‘We don’t know (what will happen), is the honest answer,’ said Howe. ‘But I certainly hope for Sandro that there are no further consequences.
‘He has suffered during this period. He has sought help, he’s been very honest. He has admitted he has an issue, and I think the best thing for Sandro would be to resume his career having taken his punishment and having learned a lot of lessons from this.
‘That illness was there and people should look at it that way and not, “Let’s throw the book at him and let’s punish him even further”, because I don’t think that gets to the root of the problem. We need to protect all our players because this is something that’s open to everybody and becoming a bigger problem in society, so this isn’t just a problem for Sandro.
‘If that ban was extended, we’d still be feeling that pain and so would Sandro, because he wants to play football and he is in a good place, doing well off the pitch. I think he should be allowed the chance to move forward with his career. I will be hugely disappointed if that ban was extended.’
Tonali continued to gamble on football as a Newcastle player, including on the opening day of the season when he scored in a 5-1 win over Aston Villa. Does Howe feel let down by that?
‘I don’t feel let down,’ he said. ‘Sandro has an illness. If this was associated with another form of illness, I think there would be a lot more sympathy and understanding. That illness did not stop the minute he moved to England. That illness was still there.
Tonali is alleged to have gambled as a Newcastle player, including on the opening day when he scored in the Magpies 5-1 win over Aston Villa
Howe said the outcome of an internal investigation into the deal was a question for the club’s former sporting director Dan Ashworth
‘It was only when everything that had happened – instantly he was very apologetic and sorry for what he had done – that he needed help. We have tried, along with Sandro’s representatives and his family, to get him the help that he needs to recover from this. This is something that won’t go away for him, so he has regular meetings in Italy and in England to deal with the problems that he has.’
Howe said he has ‘no idea’ of the outcome of an internal investigation into the deal and that was a question for Dan Ashworth, the former sporting director. Could the club have done more to know about Tonali’s issues before the transfer?
‘When someone has something they want to hide on a personal level from their closest family, there is no way a football club could have known,’ said Howe. ‘I think this could happen to any club at any time. Even for us in the future, you just don’t know. It’s very difficult to dig that deep if someone wants to hide something. We will endeavour to do everything possible to ensure in any future transfer there are no problems like this again.’