A Football Association ruling on 262 alleged breaches of its betting rules by Brentford player Ivan Toney is imminent. Kynan Isaac, who in October last year was issued with the FA’s longest ban to date of eleven and a half years, argues that double standards are in play.
By Andy Brown
Eleven and a half years, a ban that ended Kynan Isaac’ involvement in football. The Oxford-born player is now working as an administration assistant for the National Health Service (NHS). But, in similarity to his hard-hitting approach to playing the game, he isn’t taking his ban lying down. Backed by his club Stratford Town – a level 7 club in the English football pyramid – and its chairman, Jed McCrory, he is launching an appeal against the 11.5 year ban as disproportionate to his offence.
Isaac’s booking took place in the 84th minute of Stratford Town’s 5-1 loss to Shrewsbury Town in the 2021/22 FA Cup first round on 7 November 2021. It was 4-1 when Isaac was shown a yellow card. It could be argued his actions, which he argues were retaliation after being elbowed in the face, had little effect on the outcome of the game, which Stratford were expected to lose.
Skybet launched an investigation after an unusual number of bets on Isaac to be carded. The result? An 11.5 year ban over 2,016.50 pounds in bets, none of which were placed by Isaac and all of which Skybet refused to pay out on. Fourteen bets in total were placed on Isaac to get carded, including 1,360 pounds placed by four people, comprising the majority of the total.
As such, this was far from an organised scheme helping criminals to get rich. Yet the FA describe a WhatsApp exchange as ‘une...
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