ALLI FACING FA RAP AFTER CORONAVIRUS POST
DELE ALLI is facing a ban after the FA opened an investigation into his social media video that made jokes about the coronavirus outbreak. The Tottenham and England midfielder, 23, is also set to be reprimanded by his club when he returns to training tomorrow. But it is the prospect of a ban that will most concern Alli, who has issued two apologies for the inappropriate video.
The FA have written to Alli asking for his observations and the level of any punishment depends on whether the governing body rule his post was racist or merely offensive. Another consideration for the FA will be whether the post was meant for public consumption. Alli posted the video on his private Snapchat account, which can only be viewed by people that he has verified. However, the video in question was leaked to the Daily Star on Sunday and Football Against Racism in Europe executive director Piara Powar said last night: ‘At the very least it’s a deeply insensitive joke. The FA are right to investigate and potentially take action.’ The FA are likely to take into account their decision last week to charge Port Vale striker Tom Pope, who is accused of anti-semitism over tweets linking the Rothschilds to ‘every bank on the planet’. Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva was banned for one game and fined £50,000 in November for a post in which he compared team-mate Benjamin Mendy to the cartoon character used by chocolate brand
Conguitos.An FA commission accepted Bernardo had not intended to be racist, but still suspended him. The posts by Pope and Bernardo were made on Twitter, which is a public forum. Having already said sorry, on Sunday Alli posted a second video apology on Chinese social media site Weibo. Nevertheless, Alli and Spurs are bracing themselves for FA sanctions.