Premier League star had panic attack after being confronted with betting breaches

Nottingham Forest defender Harry Toffolo was fined £20,956 and given a five-month suspended ban by the Football Association in September for 375 breaches of betting rules

Nottingham Forest star Harry Toffolo says he is “mortified and ashamed” of himself for breaching betting rules.

Toffolo was fined £20,956 and given a five-month suspended ban by the Football Association in September for 375 breaches of betting rules. The 28-year-old placed the bets on football matches between January 22, 2014 and March 18, 2017 when he was contracted to Norwich and spent time on loan with Swindon, Rotherham, Peterborough and Scunthorpe.

He placed 15 bets against his own team and put two 25p bets on himself to score in the League One play-off final in 2015, which Swindon lost 4-0 against Preston. The FA decided not to ban him due to his mental health being at “a very low ebb” during the period in question and the defender showing "genuine remorse" for his actions.

Toffolo, whose ban is suspended until the end of the 2024/25 season, has now opened up about the impact the breaches had on his life. "When I got that email sent through from the FA, I dropped on the floor and had a full-on panic attack," he told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"I recognised the user names, but I didn't recognise those bets. I can't remember placing them, but they are me. I don't identify myself with the person on that Excel spreadsheet. I was mortified and ashamed of them. My kids will never forget the day they saw their daddy cry."

Toffolo claims he didn’t know betting by professional footballers was prohibited until he joined Lincoln in 2018. He has opened up about his struggles with loneliness, depression and the desire to “fit in” with others in the dressing room.

"I felt like I lost everything,” he added. "It was 100 per cent the most difficult part of not just my career, but of my life. It scares me because I was in the last year of my contract and I thought the dream I worked so hard to get was over. I was thinking my career is going to be over because of what happened six to nine years ago, which came back to sting me."

Toffolo has now become an ambassador of Tricky to Talk – a Nottingham Forest community trust mental health programme. He is not the only footballer to slip into gambling on the sport, with Brentford striker Ivan Toney and Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali both currently banned from playing.

Toney is nearing the end of his eight-month ban for 232 breaches, which saw him fined £50,000 by the FA. Tonali was banned in October for 10 months after being found guilty of illegal betting charges by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) during his time with previous club AC Milan.

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