Andrea SannaEnglish football tries to stamp out homophobia in stadiums
Tottenham Hotspur football club has been fined by the Football Association (FA) for homophobic chanting by its fans during a match against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 29 September.
Tottenham Hotspur’s management immediately condemned the homophobic chanting, describing it as “abhorrent, unacceptable, extremely offensive and inappropriate as a show of support for the club“, adding that the club would adopt a “zero tolerance approach” to discrimination and would work with the authorities to identify and punish those responsible.
Tottenham Hotspur’s statements were not enough to avoid sanctions from the FA, which accused the club of breaching Rule E21 – which governs the behaviour of supporters at matches – for misconduct relating to crowd control, and also stated that Tottenham “failed to ensure that their supporters behaved in an orderly manner and did not use inappropriate, offensive, abusive, indecent words, behaviour or abuse with clear explicit or implicit references to sexual orientation“.
Tottenham Hotspur now have until Wednesday to request a review of their case, but appear inclined to accept the FA’s verdict.
