Brentford's plans for Ivan Toney following eight-month ban
Brentford are hopeful of signing Ivan Toney down to a new contract despite receiving an eight-month ban from the FA for betting offences, 90min understands.
Toney will not be able to partake in football or football-related activities at home or abroad until January 16 2024, while he cannot return to training until September 17 2023.
In a statement on Wednesday, the FA said: "Ivan Toney has been suspended from all football and football-related activity with immediate effect for eight months, fined £50,000 and warned as to his future conduct for breaches of The FA's Betting Rules.
"The Brentford FC forward was charged with 262 breaches of FA Rule E8 in total between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021. The FA subsequently withdrew 30 of these breaches and he admitted to the remaining 232.
"His sanctions were subsequently imposed by an independent Regulatory Commission following a personal hearing. He is permitted to return to training only with his club for the final four months of his suspension starting from 17 September 2023.
"The independent Regulatory Commission's written reasons for these sanctions will be published in due course, and The FA will wait to review them before commenting further."
The Bees have confirmed they are awaiting the publication of the written reasons from the independent Regulatory Commission before deciding on further steps, though sources have confirmed the club are 'relieved' the ban wasn't any longer, while rival sides were surprised at the 'leniency' of the outcome.
READ MORE FROM THE 90MIN TALKING TRANSFERS TEAM
feed
Sources have also told 90min Brentford have made it clear to Toney he will not be sold in either the summer or January transfer windows and are confident he will put pen to paper on a new contract at the Gtech Community Stadium. His current deal is up in 2025.
Brentford are looking at their options in the meantime, with 90min previously reporting of their interest in Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres.
The Sweden international remains on the Bees' radar. He could yet leave the Sky Blues even if they win the Championship play-off final as he has only one year left on his contract and has turned down previous offers of a new deal.
Wolves are willing to battle Brentford for Gyokeres, while Everton and Leeds United will be in the mix if they avoid relegation over the next 10 days.
LISTEN NOW
On this week's edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth and Graeme Bailey to discuss all the latest transfer news. On the agenda: Aurelien Tchouameni, Lionel Messi, Moises Caicedo, Rafael Leao, Kim min-Jae, David de Gea, Dusan Vlahovic and more.
If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!