Gambling has found itself back in the dock this week after Sandro Tonali was found to have breached Italian betting regulations before he made the move from Milan to Newcastle in the summer.
Tonali has admitted to placing bets on matches he played in when at Milan and once the reported ten-month ban handed down by the Italian FA is, as expected, ratified it is going to be devastating for the 23-year-old midfielder.
Many people connected with the sport – whether that be in the media or former players – have used Tonali’s situation to demand more action against gambling sponsorship in football – and you could certainly argue the current volumes are too high. But football clubs should be using the cash generated from gambling sponsorship to educate players on money management, which is not just limited to betting.
Speaking to the Daily Mail this week, former Toon star Andy Carroll said: “You’re 17 years old and getting all this money. I wasted money on stupid things. I’d go to Harrods in London and spend five grand on rubbish. I’d have nothing to show for it.
“In the dressing room everyone’s walking round with Lamborghinis or designer clothes. I’ve got money and I’m thinking ‘They’re doing it… I’ll do it as well’.
“I wanted an exotic cat. [I] Found this Bengal and got it. I had it for two weeks.”
The simple fact is many footballers have a lot of money and too much time on their hands, but Tonali’s suspension shows gambling promotion is not necessarily going to solve the problem.
Serie A banned all betting sponsorship in 2019 and overall Italian football has some of the strongest anti-gambling laws around, yet Tonali and Juventus’s Nicolo Fagioli, who was banned for seven months for his own breach of Italy’s betting rules, were still finding a way to gamble.
This was, however, through the black market, which according to the European Gaming and Betting Association accounts for an estimated £21.76 billion of bets in Italy, and highlights a very obvious problem of driving gambling underground.
Tonali and Fagioli’s betting was exposed by Fabrizio Corona, who goes by the name of the ‘King of the Paparazzi’ which gives him a standing much grander than the one-time celebrity gossip journalist deserves.
Corona has also threatened to reveal the names of players he believes are gay and has spent time in prison for a high-profile extortion case which involved a number of celebrities, including footballers who were blackmailed to stop compromising pictures being released to the media.
Corona has said he has broken the betting news because “gambling is an addiction like cocaine”, although his conscience only goes so far and he wanted paying to reveal further betting indiscretions. He has previously compared himself to Robin Hood, although the major difference in that, in his own words, he takes money from the rich and gives to himself rather than the poor.
The idea that someone such as Corona can have such an influence needs to serve as a warning to those who seem to believe banning betting operators will be a quick fix to the problem. And while the sound logic of giving shorter bans to those players who claim to have a gambling addiction seems only right, it opens up other potential concerns.
You’d like to think nobody would ever make light of such a serious illness but what would you say if there was an opportunity to cut a suspension by several months, or even years?
Premier League predictions
Chelsea -0.75 on Asian handicap v Brentford
Chelsea have won every game on expected goals this season and if they carry on doing the right things the results will surely have to soon follow, particularly after impressing for large parts of last week’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal.