Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest's Harry Toffolo given five-month ban for betting breaches

By Andrew Delaney, Reporter | 14 September 2023

Forest's Toffolo given five-month ban for betting breaches

Nottingham Forest's Harry Toffolo is handed a suspended five-month ban after 375 breaches of the Football Association's betting regulations.

Nottingham Forest defender Harry Toffolo has received a suspended ban for breaching betting regulations.

Toffolo has been given a £20,956 fine on top of the ban, which is suspended until the end of the 2024-25 season.

While Toffolo is technically not suspended as of now, should he breach the rules again before the end date, then he will receive an immediate five-month ban.

From the ages of 18 to 21, Toffolo made 375 breaches of the Football Association's gambling rules between January 2014 and March 2017.

Those rules prohibit players from betting themselves or providing information for others to bet.

During the period of time in question, Toffolo was a Norwich City player, but had loan spells with Swindon Town, Rotherham United, Peterborough United and Scunthorpe United.

Toffolo only joined Forest last summer from Huddersfield Town upon their promotion to the Premier League.

Harry Toffolo in action for Nottingham Forest on August 6, 2022 © Reuters

The left-back featured 19 times in the Premier League, but often played second-fiddle behind loanee Renan Lodi.

With the investigation surrounding Toffolo, the 28-year-old has not played a minute in the league so far this season, but he was an unused substitute against Sheffield United.

The announcement of his suspended ban has also coincided with the left-back being named in Forest's 25-man squad for the Premier League this season.

However, the punishment has raised questions in some quarters given the leniency shown compared to Ivan Toney for similar misdemeanors.

Toney received an instant eight-month ban and a substantially larger fine despite committing only 232 breaches, as opposed to Toffolo's 375.

Mitigating factors such as Toney betting in games involving his own team, and doing so much more recently led to a harsher suspension.

Toffolo has not gambled now for over six years, meaning that the FA were content to give him a suspended ban to deter him from doing so again in the near future.