Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe is standing up for midfielder Sandro Tonali, asking the Football Association not to be too harsh on him for additional betting charges. Tonali is already serving a 10-month ban worldwide after admitting to breaking gambling rules.
Now, he's facing allegations of breaking FA rule E8 50 times by betting on matches between August and October last year.
Howe said: "The news that there was an FA charge, that illness didn’t stop when he moved from Italy to England, that illness was there and people should look at it that way, not ‘let’s throw the book at him and let’s punish him even further’ because I don’t think that gets to the root of the problem."
"We need to protect all our players because this is something that’s open to everybody and becoming a bigger problem in society, so this isn’t just a problem for Sandro."
