FORMER Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has criticised authorities for handing out long bans to Ivan Toney and Sandro Tonali and says gambling is still an “under-estimated” addiction that is “ravaging” football.

Merson has often opened up on the extent of his career-long problem with gambling, and how it was an addiction that drove him to contemplate suicide.

He told the BBC’s Sacked in the Morning podcast that gambling remains a huge threat to the modern game and that players like Toney and Tonali, who were banned for eight and 10 months respectively for betting breaches, deserved to be treated with more understanding.