Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli faces a fine and a possible suspension from the FA for alleged racist behaviour on social media, as BBC Sport reports.
The 23-year-old posted a Snapchat video, which was leaked to the press by one of his supposed [former] friends, in which he joked about not catching the deadly coronavirus from a random Asian man in the background.
Dele quickly apologised in a video on Chinese website Weibo, saying: “It wasn’t funny and I realised that immediately and took it down. I let myself down and the club. It isn’t something that should be joked about. I’m sending all my love and all my thoughts and prayers to everyone in China.”
MORE: Dele Alli’s Apology For Coronavirus Video Won’t Save Him
FA precedent suggests Dele will be slapped with a £50,000 fine and one-match ban, which was the punishment handed out to Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva last season, after he likened team-mate Benjamin Mendy to a black cartoon character on Twitter. The FA, as diverse as the crowd at a Cliff Richard gig, took it upon themselves to assume Mendy was offended.
The FA are so worried about being seen to be done right, rather than actually doing right, that they will surely make the same ruling with Dele.
They don’t care what it is, they care what it looks like.
Speaking to talkSPORT, ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan hit the nail on the head, with equal levels of criticism for Dele and the FA.
“Dele Alli thinking a subject matter which is causing great consternation and has basically shut down a country and putting that up as a joke is just pure and utter self-indulgence, ignorance and stupidity.
“But does that take you into the territory of being sanctioned because you’re stupid? Because I tell you what, we’ll lose half the Premier League if we go down that road of saying to sanction players because they’re stupid.
“While I don’t think the subject matter is humorous, I do think we have to get some context.
“I’m a bit tired of this offended for offended sake gang that’s out there that takes offence at everything. People seem to have lost their humour. I think the FA will fall into the category now because it’s politically correct to.”
Jordan added on The White & Sawyer Show: “The FA and the clubs have got to sit down and say we’ve got a phenomenon in social media that is a tiger by the tail, we need to a get a blueprint of what players can do and what they can’t and give them clear guidelines and clear education, and then sit back and see how stupid and how destructive players want to be at times.”
