Brentford forward Ivan Toney has been called up to the England team for Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine in spite of facing several betting indictment levelled against him by the English Football Association.
The Englishman is yet to feature in any encounter for England as he was an unused substitute by Gareth Southgate following his earlier call up in September.
Ivan Toney has been hit with over 200 charges
Toney has been slammed with 262 breaches of the Football Association’s rules which prohibits players from gambling on any encounter, even when they are not connected with the match.
The Bees forward, Ivan Toney is likely to face a long time out of footballing action if found culpable by a Football Association’s hearing.
Nevertheless, only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have netted more goals than Ivan Toney in the Premier League this campaign as he has scored 16 goals in the Premier League.
Toney’s impressive numbers for Brentford this campaign has placed the side in a great position to qualify for European football next season.
In February 2023, The Englishman allegedly pleaded guilty to several charges of breaking FA betting rules and he is in line to face a long ban from football.
According to reports, Ivan Toney has confessed to being guilty to many of the charges but he would challenge others.
After he was charged with 232 breaches of the FA’s betting rules between 2017 and 2021 in November, the FA included an additional 30 charges that went down between 2017 and 2019 the following month.
That took the total charges for the footballer to 262 and based on information gathered, it could lead to the striker being out of action for several months depending on the decision of the Football Association.
The supposed breaches took place while he was still playing for Scunthrope United, Wigan Athletic, Peterborough United and Brentford.
Brentford following the release of the information put out a statement stating: “We note the story concerning Ivan Toney and the FA investigation. The club will not be commenting.”
Ivan Toney has scored 156 goals in 383 appearances and he has played for several clubs notably; Northampton Town, Newcastle United, Barnsley on loan in addition to Shrewsbury Town also on loan.
He also featured for other clubs like Wigan Athletic on loan before signing for his last club, Peterborough United.
These are the full list of players invited by Gareth Southgate to prosecute the upcoming European Championship 2024 qualifiers against Ukraine and Italy at Wembley.
Players invited for England to battle in European Championship 2024 qualifiers:
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Newcastle), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal).
Defenders: Ben Chilwell (Chelsea), Eric Dier (Tottenham), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Reece James (Chelsea), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle United), Kyle Walker (Manchester City).
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), James Maddison (Leicester City), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City), Declan Rice (West Ham).
Forwards: Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney (Brentford).
England square up against Italy on the 23rd of March to begin their battle in Group C while their second game in the group against Ukraine would go down three days later.
