Everton FC striker charged with breaching FA betting rules

An Everton FC forward has been charged with breaching the Football Association’s (FA) betting rules throughout a period that spanned 15 months.

Martin Sherif, who joined Everton’s youth team back in 2019 from Dutch side Almere City, is alleged to have placed 61 bets on football matches between 20 November 2024 and 12 February 2026. 

The player was called up to Everton’s first team since midway through the 2024/25 season, but is yet to make a competitive first team appearance. 

He has however, been plying his trade in League One, having embarked on two loan spells last season at Rotherham United and Port Vale. 

Sherif scored four league goals in 24 appearances – two for the former and two for the latter either side of the turn of the year – and both clubs were eventually relegated to League Two. 

The allegations come while his career is still in its embryonic stages and threaten to derail what may well have been a promising future for the youngster, who is still only 20-years-old. 

If the allegations are true, it means Sherif would have begun gambling on football matches just five months after he turned 18 – the legal age to gamble in the UK. 

The Everton frontman, who was born in Liberia, has until Monday to provide a response. 

Ironically, throughout the entire period of Sherif’s alleged betting, Everton’s front-of-shirt sponsor was the now-unlicensed gambling operator Stake, which the club continues to affiliate itself with. 

Everton’s Sherif not the first to face charges

The charges against Sherif is the most high-profile instance of a professional footballer being accused of violating FA betting rules since Sandro Tonali back in 2024.

The Italian midfielder was banned from playing for his then-team, Newcastle United, for 10 months by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC), and for two months by the English FA.

Tonali was accused of being involved in an illegal gambling ring in his native Italy.

Previous high-profile cases include the 2023 bans of then-Nottingham Forest defender Harry Toffolo, who was suspended from play for five months, and then-Brentford forward Ivan Toney, who was suspended for eight.

In both cases, Toffolo and Toney were banned for placing bets while active players in the lower divisions, prior to playing in the Premier League from 2022 (Toffolo) and 2020 (Toney) respectively.

The charges against Toney gained a particular amount of attention due to his rising status at the time, having narrowly missed out on being picked for the England squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The case involving Everton’s Sherif could reignite some discussion about gambling sponsorship in the Premier League, which occurred in the aftermath of Toney’s ban back in 2023.

Some campaign groups were vocal at the time about the fact Toney had been banned for betting while Brentford sported the logo of a betting company, Hollywood Bets, on the front of its shirts at the time.

With Everton remaining partnered with Stake – though now as a sleeve partner following the Premier League’s front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship ban – the spotlight could once again fall on the sport’s connections with betting.

Article coauthored by Patrick Killeen and Ted Orme-Claye