Howe Defends Tonali: Urges FA for Leniency.
The Football Association has been encouraged by Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe not to “throw the book” at midfielder Sandro Tonali following allegations of more betting offenses.
The 23-year-old is accused of breaking FA rule E8 50 times by placing bets on games between August 12 and October 12 of last year. He is presently serving a 10-month worldwide ban imposed by the Italian Football Federation in October after he acknowledged breaking gambling regulations.
Though Howe has been without his £55 million (€64 million) summer signing from AC Milan since October, he is hopeful that the English football association won’t penalize the player even more severely, as his agent, Giuseppe Riso, has stated that he is fighting a “gambling addiction”.
Howe said: “The news that there was an FA charge, that illness didn’t stop when he moved from Italy to England, that illness was there and people should look at it that way, 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.”
When asked if he was concerned that Tonali, who has until April 5 to reply, may receive a subsequent suspension to serve out once the current sentence has over, Howe replied, “The honest answer is that we don’t know.” I sincerely hope that Sandro suffers no more repercussions.
“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.”
Tonali’s original 18-month penalty was shortened by eight months if he received addiction treatment and made sixteen appearances in public to educate young players about the risks associated with gambling in Italy.
He may practice with Newcastle right now, and they play West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday. However, he won’t be able to play until the end of August.
When asked how Tonali is handling things, Howe responded as follows: “He is seeking help on a regular basis. 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.
“But I have to say mentally, he’s been very good in his training sessions, he’s been very good off the pitch. He’s been a brilliant team-mate to the people here and supporting team-mates and training really well to set a positive example.
“His English has improved a lot as well, which has been great. He can communicate now really well with his team-mates, which is such an important thing.
“I’m really positive about his comeback, whenever that is, that he’ll have a huge impact on the team.”