Although he’s an acquired taste for many, if there’s one area that Paul Merson can speak with authority about it’s gambling in professional sport, and he’s gone to town on the authorities for the length of ban handed out to Newcastle ace Sandro Tonali.
The Italian was given a 10-month ban earlier in the campaign, and whilst he can still train with his team-mates, he won’t be able to play again for the Magpies until next season.
No one really knows if he’ll come back the same player or a shell of the one that the North East giants bought from Milan.
Paul Merson has slammed the authorities over ban for Newcastle ace Sandro Tonali
What Merson knows, however, is that Tonali has been harshly treated by a sport that has remarkable double standards.
“People have no respect for the gambling addiction,” he said on the Sacked in the Morning podcast.
“We’ve seen that with the bans of Sandro Tonali at Newcastle and Ivan Toney at Brentford.
“To give people 10-month bans for an addiction that is ravaging football, with sponsorships all over the shirts… They needed help and I don’t think ‘help’ is giving them 10-month bans.
“We underestimate this addiction. We need to show it some respect and not, ‘oh, show a bit of willpower’. I would say to the people who make these rules up and ban people, ‘next time you get diarrhoea, try and stop that with willpower.'”
It’s hard to disagree with Merson whether or not your a fan of his.
As someone that’s been down that particular road and seen first hand how it ruins individuals lives and those of their immediate family, the former Arsenal man needs to be listened to on this subject.
Any possible help or direction that Merson could give the powers that be would surely be a damn sight more helpful than a handful of suits sitting in an office at FA towers deciding on what punishments to meter out.