Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has been charged with breaching the Scottish FA's gambling rules by betting on 44 football matches.

The English midfielder, who is currently serving a three-week suspension from the Ibrox club, is alleged to have broken the governing body's strict zero-tolerance policy on wagers on any football games.

The charges cover Barton's arrival in Scotland on July 1 until September 15. It had been claimed one of the matches relates to Celtic's 7-0 Champions League defeat to Barcelona in Spain.

Barton has until October 12 to respond to the complaint with a hearing set for October 27.

The SFA judicial protocol forbids players from betting on any football match, anywhere in the world. The English FA introduced a similar blanket ban on gambling on football in 2014.

Former Rangers players Ian Black and Steve Simonsen were both banned for betting on football in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

Black was handed a 10-match ban for betting on his own side and served three of them with the other seven suspended. Simonsen missed one game for putting money on other teams with another game suspended.

Unlike the Black situation, none of the charges relate to betting on matches involving Rangers.