262 bets in four years
In November of last year, he was charged with 232 episodes of rule violations, and 30 more bets were added to the list in December. The alleged violations took place between February 2017 and January 2021, when Tawney was playing for Scapthorpe United, Wigan Athletic, Peterborough United and Brentford.
At the same time, according to the Football Association rules, players are prohibited from betting on matches or sharing insider information for the purpose of betting with others. And this means that only a miracle will help you avoid a long disqualification.
However, while all this is very unpleasant for Tawney, it is still not critical to a career. He faces a ban of at least six months, but the FA consider each case separately so Tawney admitted to only part of the charges. The strategy for his defense is to start the work of the commission as soon as possible and, consequently, obtain a verdict as quickly as possible. Then an important part of the disqualification will fall on the summer period.
The club also benefits from this strategy, as Brentford intend to sell the star striker in January or summer of 2024 and hope that the player can return and maintain his transfer value during this time. The club hopes that the first proposals will arrive after the disqualification period is known.
At the same time, the English media draw attention to the fact that because the FA will consider each episode separately, it makes no sense to refer to previous similar stories to predict the disqualification period. However, they remember that Kieran Trippier received a 10-month ban for providing privileged information to third parties about his transfer from Tottenham to Atlético, and Joe Barton received 18 months for betting on soccer for 1,260, which his lawyers managed to knock down 13.
European Cup prospects for the “bees” melt like spring snow
It will be a huge blow for Brentford as the team is having the best season ever and is in ninth place after 25 matchdays, just one point behind seventh (Conference League zone) Liverpool. In addition, in terms of lost points, the “bees” are ahead of the sixth-placed Fulham (they have minus four points, but there are two games left).
So for Thomas Frank’s team comes the most important stage of the season. So, next Monday, the match is only with Fulham, and in early April – with another direct competitor – Brighton. Also ahead matches with Manchester United, Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City.
Tawney is the third top scorer in the Premier League
Tawney is the team’s top scorer and one of the best in the Premier League. In 21 Premier League games, he scored 14 goals. Only the monsters Erling Holland (27) and Harry Kane (18) have more. For Brentford it is even more significant that these two are for his teams, because he is the main finisher of all the team’s attacks. It is significant that the second goalscorer for the “bees”, winger Brian Mbemo, has only five goals.
So, it was Tawney this season who scored a double against Man City (2: 1) in the away match and deprived the “citizens” of three points, but then slightly corrected their championship chances by knocking on the gates of Arsenal (1 :1). He has also scored against Fulham, Newcastle, Brighton and Tottenham. This means that in the top 8, that is, among the teams located in the table above Brentford, only Manchester United and Liverpool were not lacking, but in the game with the Red Devils (4:0), Tawney scored two assists . and he missed the game with Jurgen Klopp’s team.
In general, without him, Brentford can forget about the European competition.
For the forward, this disqualification, among other things, closes the door to the England team. Gareth Southgate called him for the first time in September, but did not dare to release him on the field in the decisive games of the League of Nations with Germany and Italy. But he certainly featured the 26-year-old striker in March’s Euro 2024 qualifiers against Ukraine and Italy. This could have been Tawney’s debut in a “three lions” jersey.
