Ivan Toney alleges that the Football Association "was a little bit spiteful" in how it handled the striker's eight-month suspension for violating betting laws.
Toney was charged with 262 violations in November of last year, but it took the FA until May to announce his suspension and £50,000 punishment after he had pleaded guilty to 232 of the offences.
The 27-year-old was left out of Gareth Southgate's Qatar 2022 World Cup team, ending his "dream" of competing in the tournament. He accepts his punishment, but he thinks the timing of the accusations' public disclosure was unfair.
"It came out just before the England camp," Toney told Kick Game. I obviously missed both the World Cup and that. That would have been my greatest fantasy, to be honest.
It was like, "Get it out now so he doesn't go with England," but then they decided to postpone the announcement of the suspension until the end of the current campaign.
If they choose to do it that way, that is what it is. Although I think it's a little spiteful, it is what it is.That seemed like a harsher sentence to me. Even though I'm currently missing eight months of football, I feel as though losing out on the World Cup, which is everyone's dream, was a worse punishment.
Toney broke FA Rule E8, which forbids all participants from betting on football, during the course of five seasons, from February 25, 2017, to January 23, 2021.
Aston Villa and Wigan were the subject of two additional wagers, but Toney, who was on loan at Wigan at the time, was not a member of the matchday squad.
"None of it was match-fixing," Toney insisted. None of the things I did or were suspected of doing was match-fixing; if it was, I understand that; if not longer, ban me for eight months.
The extensiveness of Toney's suspension, which prevents him from practicing until September 17 and from playing again until January 17 of the following year, has drawn criticism from England manager Southgate.
Toney expressed his gratitude for Southgate's and his club's backing and promised to return an even better player after the season was through.
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