Banned Joey Barton says he is not only player with a gambling problem

Barton has been suspended from all football activity for 18 months with immediate effect and fined £30,000 and costs after he admitted a Football Association misconduct charge related to betting.

Barton is alleged to have placed 1,260 bets on football matches between March, 2006 and May, 2013.

The 34-year-old midfielder started his career with Manchester City and has played for Newcastle, QPR, Marseille and Rangers. He also has one full England cap.

In January, he rejoined Burnley after a successful stint with the Premier League club in 2015-16 and has played 13 league games this campaign, scoring once.

A short statement from Burnley said Barton will appeal against the length of the ban and the player issued one of his own.

In it he states: “I am very disappointed at the harshness of the sanction. The decision effectively forces me into an early retirement from playing football. To be clear from the outset here this is not match-fixing and at no point in any of this is my integrity in question.

“I accept that I broke the rules governing professional footballers, but I do feel the penalty is heavier than it might be for other less controversial players. I have fought addiction to gambling and provided the FA with a medical report about my problem. I’m disappointed it wasn’t taken into proper consideration. I think if the FA is truly serious about tackling the culture of gambling in football, it needs to look at its own dependence on the gambling companies, their role in football and in sports broadcasting, rather than just blaming the players who place a bet.

“I am not alone in football in having a problem with gambling... It is also the case that professional football has long had a betting culture, and I have been in the sport all my adult life.

“Given the money in the game, and the explosion in betting on sport, I understand why the rules have been strengthened, and I also accept that I have been in breach of them. I accept too that the FA has to be seen to lead on this issue. But surely they need to accept there is a huge clash between their rules and the culture that surrounds the modern game, where anyone who watches follows football on TV or in the stadia is bombarded by marketing, advertising and sponsorship by betting companies, and where much of the coverage now, on Sky for example, is intertwined with the broadcasters’ own gambling interests.”