Sports leagues across the world are in thrall to the gambling industrial complex. Punishing individual players keeps our eyes off the bigger fix
Newcastle United officials were quick to declare their dismay after star signing Sandro Tonali was handed a 10-month ban from competitive football last month for breaching Italian betting regulations. “It was a massive shock, a massive surprise,” Magpies sporting director Dan Ashworth told the BBC. “Dealing with it was new to all of us. It came from nowhere.”
Tonali’s ban relates to infractions committed during his time playing in Italy; it’s not yet clear whether he had also begun betting on games in England after making his high-profile summer move to the Premier League. But to claim that any of this “came from nowhere” is surely a reach. Soccer across Europe is saturated with gambling now – and increasingly it’s the norm in US sports too, as more states move to legalize a practice that was until fairly recently prohibited.
