The Brentford ace, who was slapped with 262 charges of breaching FA betting rules, has now been suspended from football and all football-related activities for a whopping eight months.

Ivan Toney has officially been banned from football, the FA have announced. The Brentford striker has been slapped with a whopping eight-month suspension from the game following a lengthy investigation into breaches of the betting rule.

The organization announced this bombshell on Wednesday, just days before Saturday's tricky Premier League trip to Tottenham, as Thomas Frank's side aim to finish above 10th and mount a late push for European football.

The 27-year-old striker was slapped with a whopping 262 charges of breaching the Football Association's betting rules. This emerged back in November, just before the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which the Brentford ace wasn't called up for.

The attacker later accepted multiple but not all of the 262 charges. The player has thus been barred from all football and football-related activity for the next eight months and will also pay a fine of £50,000.

This suspension goes into immediate effect, which means the Bees will be without their talisman forward for the final three games of the campaign. Thomas Frank will not be able to field Toney until mid-January as the punishment runs up to and includes 16 January 2024.

Ivan will be allowed to resume training only with his club in the final four months of his ban, which starts from September 17. This means the striker can work on his fitness in the build-up to his return.

Of the 262 initial charges, the FA withdrew 30 of them, with Toney admitting to the remaining 232 breaches. These breaches spanned four years, taking place between February 2017 and January 2021, and began when he was signed to Newcastle but on loan at Scunthorpe.

The FA betting rule in question is Rule E8 which prohibits players from betting on games, either directly or through another individual, or sharing privileged information that could be harnessed for betting. 

The Brentford ace made his England debut back in late March in the Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine, which Gareth Southgate's men won 2-0. However, this outcome will deny him the opportunity of representing his national team during the upcoming international breaks in June, September, October, and November.

Additionally, given that he has scored 20 Premier League goals this season, a feat bested by only Harry Kane and Erling Haaland this campaign, the player could have gotten a dream move to one of England's elite clubs. However, any hope he had of a summer transfer  is now over following his ban.