The FA has today confirmed that it has handed out its punishment to Burnley’s Andre Gray in relation to a number of offensive social media posts.
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He was also fined £25,000, warned as to his future conduct and ordered to attend an FA education course.
Leicester City’s Wes Morgan, left and Burnley’s Andre Gray battle for the ball, during the English Premier League soccer match between Leicester City and Burnley FC, at the King Power Stadium, in Leicester, England, Saturday Sept. 17, 2016.
The breaches also included reference to an “aggravating factor”, namely, sexual orientation and/or gender and/or colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3 (2).
“Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing yesterday [22 September 2016], the remaining three breaches were found proven”.
However, the FA charged Gray nonetheless and he will have to sit out Premier League matches against Watford, Arsenal, Southampton and Everton.
Historically, Rio Ferdinand was found guilty of improper conduct and fined £45,000 by the Football Association for a tweet describing Chelsea’s Ashley Cole as a “choc ice”.
Gray admitted he had breached FA regulations for three of the six postings he was called to account for but denied the others were – the FA thought otherwise.
Gray apologised for the remarks, stating he is not homophobic and declaring that he “was a completely different person to the man I am now”.
Burnley have accepted the ban and said in a statement that Gray “regrets the posts” and apologises for them.
Why Burnley Football Club must suffer for historic comments made by a player who was not even playing for his present club is way beyond my comprehension.
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The Clarets added: ” We believe this charge, regarding historical social media posts, should now also serve as a warning to all professional footballers, and participants in the wider sporting field”.
