Newcastle’s manager, Eddie Howe, believes Sandro Tonali has been punished sufficiently for his breaches of betting regulations and is cautiously optimistic the FA will not extend the midfielder’s current 10-month worldwide suspension.
“I’ll be hugely disappointed if the ban’s extended,” said Howe on Friday, less than 24 hours after Tonali was charged with 50 alleged gambling offences by England’s governing body. “I certainly hope there are no further consequences for Sandro.”
The Italian Federation banned Newcastle’s £55m summer signing from Milan from playing in October after Tonali admitted to a string of betting regulation breaches during his Serie A career. The Italy international is presently sidelined until 27 August.
“He’s suffered, he’s sought help, he’s been very honest,” said Howe. “I think the best thing for Sandro would be to resume his career having taken his punishment and having learned a lot of lessons.”
Accordingly he hopes any charges proven by an independent FA commission will run concurrently and retrospectively alongside the Italian sanction, enabling the 23-year-old to return to action early next season.
“I would say at the moment that’s a hope, but we don’t have specific clarity,” said Howe. “We certainly hope strongly for Sandro that will be the case. The FA charges were no surprise to us. Sandro, from day one, cooperated and was very honest with the authorities about what he’d done and the issues that he had. He’s seeking help on a regular basis.
“Sandro’s illness didn’t stop when he moved from Italy to England; people should look at it that way, not: ‘Let’s throw the book at him and let’s punish him even further.’ I don’t think that gets to the root of the problem.”
Howe is adamant he “doesn’t feel let down” by Tonali. “If this was associated with another form of illness I think there’d be a lot more sympathy and understanding,” he said. “You can’t quantify how much we’ve missed him. If the ban was extended we’d still be feeling that pain and so would Sandro because he wants to play football. He’s in a good place, doing well off the pitch and I think he should be allowed the chance to move forward with his career.”
Newcastle’s manager cautioned that even the most thorough transfer market due diligence has its limits. “When someone has something they want to hide on a personal level from their closest family, there’s no way a football club can know,” said Howe. “I think this could happen to any club at any time. Even for us in the future, you just don’t know. It’s very difficult to dig that deep.”
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He is unsure whether football should ban gambling advertising. “I think it’s a real issue that needs discussing,” he said. “I’m not here to say what should happen, but there needs to be thought about what we do next.”
Newcastle’s manager defended the decision to allow Sven Botman not to have ACL repair surgery after he tore a knee ligament in September. The Dutch defender returned in December but struggled for form and, after suffering a relapse, has now undergone the procedure initially recommended by specialists.
“You can’t force a player to have an operation,” said Howe. “No matter what an opinion may be internally, a player has to allow his body to be operated on and Sven was adamant he wanted to carry on.”
Meanwhile, the 17-year-old Lewis Miley will miss the remainder of the season with back trouble. “You forget how young Lewis is,” said Howe. “But he’s still growing, his body’s still developing and maybe this is the warning everyone needed. We need to protect him; we can’t treat him like he’s 23.”