Dele Alli Handed One-Game Ban By FA For Coronavirus Joke
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli has been banned for one game and fined £50,000 by the Football Association for a joke he made about the coronavirus disease back in February.
The England international will miss Tottenham’s return to Premier League action against Manchester United next week, and has also been asked to undertake an FA educational course.
Alli was seen in a video posted on his snapchat account wearing a facemask at an airport, where he zoomed the camera onto a man of Asian descent before captioning it: “Corona whattt, please listen with volume.”
The 24-year-old then turned the camera to a bottle of antiseptic hand wash with the caption: “This virus gunna have to be quicker than that to catch me.”
Alli took down the video after several complaints were made and issued an apology.
In a statement posted on Tottenham's official website after the FA delivered its verdict, Alli said: "In response to the FA decision, I would like to apologise again for any offence caused by my behaviour.
"It was an extremely poorly judged joke about a virus that has now affected us more than we could ever have imagined. I’m grateful that the FA has confirmed that my actions were not racist because I despise racism of any kind. We all need to be mindful of the words and actions we use and how they can be perceived by others."
The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 291,000 people in the United Kingdom and caused 41,000 deaths.
