... was fined £30,000 and warned about his future conduct in April 2017, after being charged with breaking FA rules by placing 1,260 bets on matches between 26 March 2006 and 13 May 2016. He admitted that he was addicted to gambling, and that he'd bet on some matches in which he played, but he insisted that "this is not match fixing" and that at "no point in any of this is my integrity in question".
At the time his 18–month ban was imposed, Barton was aged 34 years and 7 months (and in his second spell at Burnley). He stated that "The decision effectively forces me into an early retirement." He would be free to play again in October 2018 – several games into the 2018–9 season – when he would be a few weeks past his 36th birthday.
© Haydn Thompson 2017