Joey scumbag Barton banned for 18 months.

[Snibbo]

When you read this Guardian article,  it's hard to see why he wasn't kicked out years ago.
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Joey Barton: a man whose football talent rarely took centre stage

Published: 08:32 ACST Thu 27 April 2017 Paul MacInnes
Joey Barton has had a long career in professional football but, throughout it, he has never strayed far from the wrong side of the line.

An 18-month ban from the game means the 34-year-old's career looks likely to be ended by this latest incident; placing more than 1,500 bets on football matches between 2006 and 2013, a practice from which footballers are prohibited. To look back on his career, however, is to survey a series of unpleasant, often violent, incidents that would have meant the sack in any other industry a long time earlier.

Barton, who was born in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton, began his professional career at Manchester City. He earned a first-team debut age 19 and made an initial name for himself as a prospect of some talent. But an act that shocked the game soon changed that.

At the club's Christmas party in 2004, Barton became engaged in a dispute with a youth player, Jamie Tandy, 18. The altercation ended with Barton stubbing a lit cigar in Tandy's eye. The incident made national news but Barton was only fined by City for his action. The next summer he was fined again and sent home from a pre-season tour after an altercation with a 15-year-old.

Yet Barton continued to play for City until the summer of 2007 when another assault, this time on a French international teammate, Ousmane Dabo, an attack that left him with injuries to his eye, nose and lip, finally forced the club's hand. Barton was sold to Newcastle United for £5.8m, the only transfer fee of his career.

His time at Newcastle was again tainted by outbursts of violence that included a spell in prison for assault and affray after an incident in Liverpool city centre. He also received a four-month suspended sentence for his assault on Dabo and was sent off during a match for headbutting an opponent.

During this time Barton was also publicly at odds with the club's hierarchy and his manager, Alan Shearer, and was at one point indefinitely suspended by the club. Again he stayed at Newcastle for five years, though he played just 80 games. He moved to London at the end of his contract on Tyneside and joined Queens Park Rangers. It was there that a second, highly unexpected side to his character began to emerge.

An avid user of social media, Barton began to paint a picture of himself as a renaissance man, a lover of culture and music. One popular tweet read: "Sitting eating sushi in the city, incredibly chilled out reading Nietzsche #stereotypicalfootballer".

The appearance of this heretofore hidden aspect won Barton many plaudits and earned him invitations to moonlight as an art critic and appear as a pundit on Question Time.

Joey Barton banned for 18 months by FA and says it effectively ends his career
But his aggressive side was never curbed and at the end of his first season at QPR he received a record 12-match ban after he not only elbowed Manchester City's Carlos Tevez, an act for which he was sent off, but then struck Sergio Aguero with his knee and attempted to headbutt Vincent Kompany on his way off the pitch. Barton was captain of the club at the time. QPR allowed Barton to leave on loan for Marseille in the summer of 2012 where he enjoyed a relatively quiet season. His only ban was for transphobic abuse levied at the Brazilian international Thiago Silva on Twitter. Barton returned to QPR the following summer and played for two further years at the club before being released.

Barton enjoyed the most successful spell of his career at his next club, Burnley, where he formed a pivotal part of the side that won promotion from the Championship in 2016. Last summer, with his one-year contract at an end, Barton chose to reject the offer of a new deal at Turf Moor and instead moved to Scotland to join Glasgow Rangers. It was to be the shortest stint of his entire career, a six-month stay peppered with confrontation that ended with the Ibrox club terminating his contract.

Burnley saw fit to give Barton another chance. But his return in January, scoring in his first appearance, has turned out to be short-lived. Barton, through a statement in which he claims his betting problems were in part the result of "character issues", says he intends to contest the ban.

[Keynsham]

It's a harsh sentence, but it was in my opinion the right move.

I say this because Barton is high profile enough that younger players will sit up and take note, and yet he is also old enough that although it will effectively end his career, it won't ruin it. 

So yes, harsh but also a clever move.

Gambling addiction is one thing, betting on your own games/team mates doesn't fall under that bracket as far as I can see, and is two bets a week actually an addiction anyway?

[Woolly Mammoth]

Barton is one step up the evolutionary ladder from a Garden Gnome.

[New Kid on the Block]

As long as any other players that are found guilty of betting on the outcome of matches, are given at least the same punishment, then fair enough. We'll see.

Wasn't Michael Owen in hot water a few years ago because of his gambling? Was it only on the horses?

I wonder how many other players are looking over their shoulders.

[GorgeousGus]

The thing he is most upset about is that he'd had a monkey on the ban only being 12 months

[Woolly Mammoth]

The thing he is most upset about is that he'd had a monkey on the ban only being 12 months

He told me it was a Pony.

[bobbo]

It might not be the crime of the century but the integrity of any serious sport is paramount or there's no point in its existence!

A tight rain is essential, there is no grey area when it comes to players and betting and a good old fashioned deterrent factor is required when punishment is handed down!   

Yes when betting when there is knowledge of match fixing. But betting on lots of games that you have no idea what the result is going to be or have no inside knowledge , and just betting for the sake of it has to be different surely ? There has been no evidence that he has tried to fix a match. His first bet allegedly was 3 quid on himself to score the first goal, which didn't happen. The rest appear to be a string of bets a normal punter would place. If there was match fixing or betting with inside knowledge the story would be massive and Barton would be crucified. As it is, it appears opinions are split on his ban. Anyway,  I'm sure he could go and play in the Thai league or something like that. They love a bet too, but it's illegal nationwide so should be a perfect fit for the muppet.

Just got to say this :- he made in excess of 1200 bets it equalled a 15 month ban
Two lads from my Saturday southern league club caught betting total 39 bets it equalled a 24 month ban which they have both now served. I ask the FA " where's the justice"

If that was the players from Hayes,  then yes , that's a joke too.

it was

[Forever Fulham]

I'll have to check, but I think the major U.S. pro sports leagues all ban gambling  by active players and active coaches with respect to their sports, whether or not the bets are on games involving the teams of which they are associated.  The reasons I've heard that I can remember: 1. If you bet on games involving other teams not playing your team, there's a greater likelihood you will eventually if not concurrently bet on games involving your own team as well; 2. Betting on other teams winning or losing can indirectly affect standing and the playoffs and thus affect how you might perform when your team plays that team; and 3. Like Portia, you should at all times be above reproach, avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.  You want to gamble?  Gamble on something other than games involving your professional sport.  Bet on the ponies, craps, blackjack, poker.  Cause if you gamble a lot, you will most likely end up losing big, and making yourself vulnerable to bad people who will want you to do things (or not do things) to effect a certain result as a way to pay off your debt.  Like point shaving in basketball.   You can get mobbed up as they say.  They pay you a lot of money to play.  Why risk all that by betting on games while you're an active player?  Dumb, dumb, dumb. 

[HatterDon]

I've been posting for 10 years now that his new club should be Wormwood Scrubs FC.