FORMER Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has claimed that half of the country's professional footballers bet on matches.

The 35-year-old was banned by the English FA for 18 months and fined £30,000 in April 2017 after being found to have placed 1,260 bets on football matches over a 10-year period.

Barton, who has said he struggles with a gambling addiction, later had his suspension reduced by almost five months after an appeal and he will be free to play again from 1 June this year.

Speaking to the BBC, the ex-Newcastle United, Marseille, QPR and Manchester City player spoke of a culture of betting within the game.

"I think if they found out everyone who has been betting and cracked down on it, you'd have half the league out," he said.

"I think 50% of the playing staff would be taken out because it's culturally engrained."

Barton placed bets on a number of matches he featured in, but insisted at the the time of his ban that it was not match-fixing.

"Where we've got it wrong is that we've got the gambling rules mixed up with the match-fixing rules," he continued.

"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 left Rangers in November 2016 after having his contract terminated following a training ground argument with teammate Andy Halliday.

He returned to former club Burnley in January 2017 but was released by the Premier League club after being handed the betting ban in April.