Ivan Toney repeatedly placed bets on matches his own team were involved in, including 13 occasions when he backed his club to lose, and gave “clearly false” answers to the investigation into his breaches of gambling rules, an independent regulatory commission has found. The England striker has begun an eight-month ban after admitting 232 breaches of the Football Association’s rule E8, which prohibits players from gambling on football. His sanction would have been three months longer, the commission’s written reasons reveal, had Toney not been diagnosed during the investigation as having a gambling addiction. Toney’s case is one of the most serious breaches of gambling rules that the FA has prosecuted. The commission found that 29 bets related to the club Toney was registered with or on loan with at the time. These included 13 bets on his own club to lose, although Toney was not involved in those games. In 11 cases the bets were against Newcastle while he was on loan elsewhere and the other two relate to a Wigan v Aston Villa match while he was on loan at Wigan but not in the squad. Betting on your own team to lose can carry a life ban, as can gambling on your own performance in a match, something Toney was also found to have done. He placed 15 bets on himself to score and 16 on his team to win. He also shared inside information on a match, used third parties to gamble on his behalf and withheld information from the investigation. The commission concluded that Toney had tried to conceal his betting, “using third parties and their betting accounts … in case there was ever an investigation”. It rejected his claim that he had wanted to conceal his betting only from his parents. Because Toney eventually accepted the 232 breaches, which took place between 2017 and 2021, an original punishment of 15 months was cut to 11. A further reduction in the tariff was agreed by the panel after taking into account Toney’s age – he is now 27 – and the diagnosis of addiction. The panel wrote that Toney had agreed to get help for his addiction and had shown genuine contrition for his rule-breaking. “It is common ground between the parties that … the sanction should be reduced in respect of the personal mitigation that is available to Mr Toney,” the panel wrote. “This includes his relative youth at the time when the breaches began, his previous good record in respect of anything other than on-field breaches, and his genuine remorse which he expressed in fulsome terms before the commission. “The lack of control the player has in respect of gambling is clearly a reflection of his diagnosed gambling addiction. “The position appears to be that Mr Toney has ceased gambling on football although he still gambles on other sports and casino games. He is determined to address his gambling problem with therapy at the conclusion of this season.” This week the England manager Gareth Southgate revealed he had spoken to Toney and said football needed to “look after” the player. “I don’t like the idea we just leave somebody, that they’re not allowed to be part of the football community,” he said. “I don’t think that’s how we should work, how the best rehabilitation programmes work.” The Brentford manager, Thomas Frank, jumped to the defence of Toney, who cannot return to training until September under the terms of his ban. He said: “Yes, Ivan did something wrong but what I don’t get at all is how can you not let him be involved in football at all for the first four months? “What do you gain from that? If you want to rehabilitate people you give them education, you do something, and now he is left on his own. “He should be forced to go into a hundred schools to tell them about his football and background, that’s how it should work, but I’m a football coach, what do I know? “If I can’t speak to him, then they will have to ban me. If I am not allowed to speak to him on a support level there must be something wrong. I think you’re allowed to contact people even when they’re in prison aren’t you? So I think I’m allowed.” On Friday Brentford said they would “do everything possible” to support Toney, who has scored 20 Premier League goals this season. Questions will now be asked about when the club learned of Toney’s gambling addiction. “The commission noted that none of the charges related to events where Ivan could negatively impact his own team,” Brentford said. “The club will now be doing everything possible to provide support to Ivan and his family to deal with the issues raised in this case. We consider this matter closed and look forward to welcoming Ivan back to training in September and seeing him representing Brentford in the Premier League in January.” On Friday, Toney broke his silence, tweeting: “I’ll speak soon with no filter.”