Ibrahim Oladamola
The FA will apply to FIFA to make Ivan Toney’s eight-month ban from football a worldwide sanction.
It means the Brentford striker, who was suspended on Wednesday with immediate effect until January 16, 2024 and fined £50,000 after admitting 232 breaches of the FA’s betting rules, would not be allowed to go on loan to a foreign club while he serves his punishment.
The idea was raised as a possibility when it became clear that the sanction – set by an independent commission, but enforced by the FA – applies only to English football.
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Terryanews has been told that, because any loan or transfer to a foreign club requires the FA to hand over a player’s registration, as soon as Brentford hypothetically applied to do so, the FA would inform the buying club’s FA and FIFA that Toney is subject to a football ban in England.
At that point, FIFA would, as a matter of procedure, look to apply the ban worldwide. However, to make things more transparent, it is understood that, once the written reasons are published and it’s clear whether Toney will appeal, the FA will formally apply to FIFA to endorse Toney’s punishment universally.
FIFA’s standard procedure would then be to review what the FA has done by setting up its own disciplinary committee to discuss the details, but there is no obvious precedent where FIFA has failed to endorse a worldwide ban in circumstances such as this.
