Sandro Tonali will face a strong punishment with an 18-month suspension for the next months from playing football due to illegal betting.
This news will force Newcastle to ban him from the Premier League games and the Italian Football Federation to not allow him to play for the National team.
Eddie Howe the manager of Newcastle has accepted the fact that he will miss for a long time and prepare his team to play without the midfielder.
“If he’s banned for a length of time, he’s going to have difficult moments during that timeframe. There will be a period where it’s just training and no game and that’s going to be difficult to adjust to. The communication between myself, the coaching staff, and him is going to be hugely important.
“We need a squad robust enough to deal with these things even though you can’t foresee these things.
“I’m slightly removed from everything because I’m focused on training and game preparation. Then you come back to hear another piece of news.
“I’ve mentally accepted the situation that I’m not going to know what’s going on. I’ll probably hear it further down the line. I’ve made peace with the fact that I’ll be without Sandro for a long time.”
Why was Tonali punished?
Tonali is accused of playing illegal bets when he was part of AC Milan on several occasions and this brought the punishment for him in the national team.
Newcastle paid £55 million this summer hoping that he would be one of the most important parts of the team.
But this relation was broken by the reports of the Italian Federation, who made a strong decision about the player.
What is next?
This is not the first scandal that has hit Italy in recent years. Just a reminder of Calciopoli in 2006 and all the fans can remember that Serie A has been a subject of problems for betting and match-fixing.
But Tonali is not alone, as per FIFA regulations if a global investigation is opened we can testify to a global problem that can result in the most unprecedented problem in the history of FIFA.
According to the Bookmarkers, 81% of the cases of late yellow or red cards are a scenario that is self-controlled by the players.
That means that these players collaborate with third-party betting companies who invest tremendous sums in these cards with huge coefficients to share the profits with the players.
This is one of the forms where players are involved in illegal betting. They create their own episodes and collect the profits.
Of Course, there exist other forms of match-fixing and illegal betting that include teams, match officials, and even clubs, but as it stands this can shake the world of football at its core and we could face the most dramatic changes in the history of football.
For now, the best thing that FIFA can do to respond to the problem in question is to open its own investigation into players who conduct illegal betting and study the late red cards, yellow cards, and corners.
This could heal the world of football from these cases and individual treatment won’t prevail as the common good state of the game is in the interest of all.
