JOEY BARTON has amazingly claimed “50 per cent” of footballers bet on matches.
And the former England midfielder has called on the FA to help tackle gambling as it is “culturally ingrained” in the sport.
Barton, 35, placed 1,260 bets on football matches over ten years and the then Burnley ace was banned for 18 months in April for breaching rules.
The FA later reduced his suspension after an appeal and he can return on June 1 this year.
Barton told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think if they found out everyone who has been betting and cracked down on it, you’d have half the league out.
“I think 50 per cent of the playing staff would be taken out because it’s culturally ingrained.”
Barton’s hugely controversial career looked to be over when he was first banned, with the player claiming: “The decision effectively forces me into early retirement.”
The former Manchester City, Newcastle, QPR and Rangers star – once jailed for assault – admitted to having a gambling addiction having staked over 15,000 wagers across a whole range of sports.
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Players in England’s top eight tiers are not allowed to bet on football matches.
Barton – now at talkSPORT – admitted to betting on games he had played in but denied being involved in match-fixing.
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He said: “Where we’ve got it wrong is that we’ve got the gambling rules mixed up with the match-fixing rules.
“Match-fixing is wrong and challenges the integrity of the sport, it’s the same as taking performance-enhancing drugs.
“I think culturally betting is acceptable. There’s nothing wrong with betting if it’s controlled – it’s when it becomes out of control and people bet beyond their means.
“My point to the FA was, how can they be so stringent when they have an official gambling partner?
“I believed that no-one cared about betting. I thought they just cared about match-fixing.
“I’d had a betting account in my name for 12 years. I was doing things for betting companies and they were paying me in betting account money – they weren’t informing the FA.”
Barton is without a club having been released by Burnley one month after his betting ban was implemented.
He won one England cap during his career in a 1-0 home defeat to Spain in 2007 under Steve McClaren.
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