Joey Barton banned for 18 months for betting on soccer

Barton, 34, is alleged to have placed 1,260 bets on football matches between March 2006 and May 2013.

"His addiction may have distorted his thinking in part, but it is not a compete answer for this continued conduct", the FA, who also hit Barton with a £30,000 fine, said.

The FA on Thursday also released the "written reasons" behind Barton's ban in a 63-page document.

It showed that Barton gambled £205,172.79 in 1,260 bets on football over a ten-year period, making a loss of £16,700.

"I am very disappointed at the harshness of the sanction", Barton said in a lengthy 1,500-word statement on his personal website. "The decision effectively forces me into an early retirement from playing football".

'I have decided I will be appealing against the length of the ban, ' Barton explained in his statement. I hope that I shall be afforded a fair hearing by an independent Appeal Panel. We know the rules, I must make that clear, and if they were broken the FA have a role and we respect that.

Barton also bet on his own team to win 15 times while betting 12 times on his team to draw a game.

"It's the controlling powers of football, they can decide whether that's relevant, it's not for me to decide that".

The governing body has confirmed they wrote to Barton in 2012 after the player made two Twitter posts which appeared to allude to betting, and that they were alerted to his account with Betfair when the bookmakers emailed the FA informing them they believed he was in breach of betting regulations in September 2016. - Action Images pic via ReutersLONDON, April 28 - The Football Association insisted yesterday they had given Joey Barton "the shortest possible" ban after hitting him with an 18-month suspension from the sport.

He continues: A ban of 18 months is longer than several bans handed to players who played in matches where they bet for their team to lose and - unlike me - were found to have had an ability to influence the games. I say that knowing that every time I pull on my team's shirt, I am advertising a betting company'.

"I presume the powers-that-be will begin looking at that, using video evidence and retrospective ban". The average bet was just over £150, many were for only a few pounds. I could not live with myself, nor face my team-mates or the fans of the clubs I played for, if they seriously thought I would bet on my team to lose a game whose outcome I could influence'.

However, they also noted that Barton had been open, expressed remorse and was willing to assist others with gambling issues and warn players of its perils. But the FA made it quite clear there's no intent other than his own personal gambling, his integrity is intact, it's just his own personal situation - you think 18 months seems a long time to me, in lieu of some of the things I've seen in the game.

'If the FA is serious about tackling gambling I would urge it to reconsider its own dependence on the gambling industry.