Andre Gray handed four-game ban by Independent Regulatory Commission

[Sandros Shiny Head]

If Rashford had tweeted that 4 years ago you can bet there'd be no suspension

 

[Bobbins]

It's just bizarre. I don't believe it's noses in the trough, it's the FA trying desperately to be seen to be politically correct and punish homophobia. Fair enough if he said it now, but punishing him because some bitter Scouser went through years of his Twitter just to deliberately try and get the guy in trouble is pathetic.

All they needed to do was say they condemned the comments but they were made several years ago when he wasn't even playing in the football league, get him to apologise as he did and move on.

Why the fuck should Burnley suffer because of something a player said years before he even joined the club?

Completely and utterly pathetic.

 

[Col_M]

Easy target.

I'm sure the Liverpool team can print some t-shirts in support of him.

Incidentally why didn't Pool get fined for that t-shirt incident. It's criticising the FA.

 

[Veuve Clicquot]

I can't believe anyone can say he doesn't deserve this ban, this was not some off hand/drunken jokey comment that can be excused. Saying on public social media that he hopes gay people 'burn and die' is disgusting and unacceptable.
For those saying it was 4 years ago and we all say things we shouldn't, he was 21 years old not some immature teenager.
Those types of comments and thoughts are inexcusable at any age anyway.
Being a person if colour can you imagine how Gray would react if some white footballer said all black people should burn and die?
Homophobia is just as unacceptable as racism and should be treated as such by the FA. Those comparing it with the Vardy incident are wrong in my opinion , even though I hate the ****, I'm sure if he said all Japanese people should 'burn and die' then he would have faced similar or worse punishment.

 

[dontcallme]

I can't believe anyone can say he doesn't deserve this ban, this was not some off hand/drunken jokey comment that can be excused. Saying on public social media that he hopes gay people 'burn and die' is disgusting and unacceptable.
For those saying it was 4 years ago and we all say things we shouldn't, he was 21 years old not some immature teenager.
Those types of comments and thoughts are inexcusable at any age anyway.
Being a person if colour can you imagine how Gray would react if some white footballer said all black people should burn and die?
Homophobia is just as unacceptable as racism and should be treated as such by the FA. Those comparing it with the Vardy incident are wrong in my opinion , even though I hate the ****, I'm sure if he said all Japanese people should 'burn and die' then he would have faced similar or worse punishment.

Guess it depends on what kind of world you want to live in.

I like the idea that if someone has bad opinions or says something stupid when young this should not affect their life as a grown man.

I had a mate who got caught shoplifting when he was 18. Got a fine and some sort of record as a result. 10 years later he was an experienced chef and ran his own small company. Got hired for some royal event and 2 weeks before it was due to take place lost the job due his misdemeanor 10 years ago.

I said stupid things on social media when it first came out as I have a Frankie Boyle style sense of humour, if it came about now and affected my personal life I would find it pretty disgusting.

Gray has used horrible language 4 years ago. I like to think most of us aren't vengeful enough to want him punished now.

 

[Veuve Clicquot]

Guess it depends on what kind of world you want to live in.

I like the idea that if someone has bad opinions or says something stupid when young this should not affect their life as a grown man.

I had a mate who got caught shoplifting when he was 18. Got a fine and some sort of record as a result. 10 years later he was an experienced chef and ran his own small company. Got hired for some royal event and 2 weeks before it was due to take place lost the job due his misdemeanor 10 years ago.

I said stupid things on social media when it first came out as I have a Frankie Boyle style sense of humour, if it came about now and affected my personal life I would find it pretty disgusting.

Gray has used horrible language 4 years ago. I like to think most of us aren't vengeful enough to want him punished now.

The difference is that Gray hasn't lost his job, he is just going to miss 4 games of football and is still being handsomely paid while doing so. He should have been punished at the time, but these tweets only came to light recently and the FA can't ignore them just because of them being 4 years old. Again, he was 21 at the time, not 12.
And yes, we all do and say things we regret, but these comments were vile and put out on a public social media outlet. He could have deleted them but never did which is why they came to light. That tells you something about him.
You really think saying certain human beings should die because of their sexual orientation or race at any point in your life is excusable?

 

[dontcallme]

The difference is that Gray hasn't lost his job, he is just going to miss 4 games of football and is still being handsomely paid while doing so. He should have been punished at the time, but these tweets only came to light recently and the FA can't ignore them just because of them being 4 years old. Again, he was 21 at the time, not 12.
And yes, we all do and say things we regret, but these comments were vile and put out on a public social media outlet. He could have deleted them but never did which is why they came to light. That tells you something about him.
You really think saying certain human beings should die because of their sexual orientation or race is excusable at any point in your life is excusable?

This for me is the crux of the issue. I don't believe Gray actually thought homosexuals should be killed.

He put in a silly over the top hashtag. But in the modern world we seocnd guess everything. Him not deleting a tweet apparently means he still believes it, to me that is just bizarre.

He might get well paid but suspending a sportsman for around a month is a punihsment which me is over the top. A public apology would have sufficed, maybe some community service talking to kids on modern problems with social media.

 

[Veuve Clicquot]

We will have to agree to disagree, premiership footballers are priveleged people, he is (or will be) a multi millionaire doing a job most of us would all love to do for a living. Rightly or wrongly they are role models for lots of young people and so should be held accountable for anything they put out on their social media. Nobody is forcing them to use twitter, you should simply not go on there if you don't want to be judged or criticised.

 

[Veuve Clicquot]

This wasn't the only one of his offensive tweets there were loads of vile sexist comments as well, plus this racist one only two years ago https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/27/andre-gray-fa-charge-i-hate-lightys
So it was cumulative offenses, plus the extreme nature of the homophobic tweet that lead to the four game ban.
He just sounds like an ***hole to be honest and then shows himself to be a hypocrite when he complained about racism from Burnley fans earlier this year.

 

[Shadydan]

Or maybe he was just immature and immature people tend to do and say stupid stuff from time to time, but yeah throw the book at him because no one else has ever said anything remotely offensive ever before.

 

[rossdapep]

The difference is that Gray hasn't lost his job, he is just going to miss 4 games of football and is still being handsomely paid while doing so. He should have been punished at the time, but these tweets only came to light recently and the FA can't ignore them just because of them being 4 years old. Again, he was 21 at the time, not 12.
And yes, we all do and say things we regret, but these comments were vile and put out on a public social media outlet. He could have deleted them but never did which is why they came to light. That tells you something about him.
You really think saying certain human beings should die because of their sexual orientation or race at any point in your life is excusable?

I get what you are saying and I do think Football has the responsibility to ensure players don't make these comments. However, the main issue for me is consistency, Vardy completely got off scott-free last year, he was then able to become a pivotal part of a championship winning team, with pundits, fans and ex-players singing his praises, all the while completely disregarding his despicable actions from months ago. Does anyone think Vardy actually was remorseful for these actions? Or embarrassed? I doubt it as he wasn't really held account for it, it was quickly glossed over. Anyway, the FA have set a precedent now, I'd like to see if they follow through with this on a consistent basis, but I seriously doubt it.

I imagine that if Rooney is caught making a gesture on his summer holidays that implies racist or homophobic behaviours, then the FA would be less proactive about enforcing punishment. Imagine the uproar from Mourinho and the head honchos.

 

[Veuve Clicquot]

Or maybe he was just immature and immature people tend to do and say stupid stuff from time to time, but yeah throw the book at him because no one else has ever said anything remotely offensive ever before.

At the risk of repeating myself, there are different levels of offensive comments and this one was off the scale. If you think making a public twitter comment about wanting a certain group people to burn and die purely because they are gay is in any way excusable then I don't know what else to say. Depressing.

 

[sbrustad]

Gray certainly seems like a vile human being, but I still don't think a four match ban for comments made two to four years ago is alright.

At the time he was relatively unkown as well. That obviously doesn't excuse him, but I think it's fair to assume that even if he hasn't changed his stance on homosexuals, he wouldn't be posting about it on Twitter now.

 

[nailsy]

His comments deserve a ban, but it seems unfair that Burnley are punished as well. This could be the difference between them staying up and west ham going down.

 

[hughy]

His comments deserve a ban, but it seems unfair that Burnley are punished as well. This could be the difference between them staying up and west ham going down.

It's their duty to look in to the player they are signing before they have an agreement in place with him, like when any company hires a new employee in everyday life. Social media is great, because one quick search can tell you what a person is really like. I'm pretty sure there are no laws against it!

 

[nightgoat]

I get what you are saying and I do think Football has the responsibility to ensure players don't make these comments. However, the main issue for me is consistency, Vardy completely got off scott-free last year, he was then able to become a pivotal part of a championship winning team, with pundits, fans and ex-players singing his praises, all the while completely disregarding his despicable actions from months ago. Does anyone think Vardy actually was remorseful for these actions? Or embarrassed? I doubt it as he wasn't really held account for it, it was quickly glossed over. Anyway, the FA have set a precedent now, I'd like to see if they follow through with this on a consistent basis, but I seriously doubt it.

I imagine that if Rooney is caught making a gesture on his summer holidays that implies racist or homophobic behaviours, then the FA would be less proactive about enforcing punishment. Imagine the uproar from Mourinho and the head honchos.

Presumably the FA have set up a body to trawl through all social media platforms of every single professional and semi-professional footballer in the country and hand out similar punishments to every player who has said anything that could cause the slightest bit of offence to anyone. Of course they won't. It's just sheer jobsworthiness, trying to look like they're doing something by punishing an easy target while the likes of Vardy get away without any sanction at all.

Anyway, the best moment of the game so far was the Freudian slip where the co-commentator called him Andre Gay.

 

[DJS]

It was four years ago and he's said himself it's a time he regrets.

Think a four match ban is wrong really, a warning would have sufficed saying if he did anything of that nature now he would be severely punished.