Joey Barton believes gambling is "culturally ingrained" in English football. The 35-year-old ex-England midfielder is currently serving a 13-month ban for breaking the Football Association’s betting rules after admitting placing bets on 1,260 matches. He also believes it is important to distinguish between gambling rules and match-fixing rules. "Where we’ve got it wrong is we’ve got the gambling rules mixed up with the match-fixing rules. "I think culturally betting is acceptable.

Source: Evening echo January 23, 2018 16:18 UTC