High stakes force FA to take its time in Casilla racism case
Implications of verdict in Leeds keeper hearing can be far-reaching for both players and clubs
There were 101 disciplinary cases heard by the Football Association’s governance and regulation department last month alone. A collection of red cards, brawls, multiple betting misdeeds and a single Twitter slur – which cost the perpetrator £1,500 and a one-match suspension.
It is a snapshot of the state of the game, from Pierre-emerick Aubameyang’s appeal against his Crystal Palace dismissal to another from the Bromley Invictas under-14s manager against a charge for abusing a referee. Both of them equal in the eyes of the governing body, both of their appeals summarily dismissed and both punishments upheld. But just stop for a moment to consider all the paperwork involved.
The Twitter misconduct charge was for Port Vale striker Tom Pope, and his geopolitical hot take that did not require examination from expert legal counsel to identify the anti-semitism, intended or not.
There were more misconduct charges – 15 – for betting than there were appeals against red cards. A sure sign that the challenges of governing the game are changing, and that many are still getting to grips with a total ban on all club employees gambling on football.
There was some reassurance in that the rump of the department’s work remains old-fashioned brawls – or “mass confrontations” in FA jargon. Its core business in January was the pushing, shoving, slapping and general effing and jeffing that is the preserve of footballers at every level.
All relatively simple fare compared to the challenge that faces the FA this month. Next week the governing body is expected finally to hear the case of Leeds United goalkeeper Kiko Casilla, alleged to have racially abused Jonathan Leko, the West Bromwich Albion striker who was at the time of the alleged offence on loan at Charlton Athletic. The game in question was at the Valley on Sept 28, Casilla was charged on Nov 4 and the hearing is not expected to take place until the middle of next week. Almost five months of the season have passed.
The Leeds goalkeeper denies the charge and clearly there is much more at stake than simply the six-game suspension that would likely accompany a guilty verdict from the three-person independent commission.
The Spaniard will no doubt want a career in the game beyond his playing days and a racism conviction is a serious matter. What happens next week will be life-changing for him and for Leko, who has made a serious allegation in good faith and is about to have his version of events interrogated.
In the meantime, Leko has not played since late December because of a cruciate ligament injury. Casilla is part of a Leeds team wobbling once more in pursuit of promotion, and was at fault again on Tuesday, this time for Brentford’s goal in a 1-1 draw.
Leeds are battling at the top of the Championship with West Brom, Leko’s parent club, and the stakes could not be higher.
They could not be higher in terms of what the charge of racism represents for the alleged victim and the alleged perpetrator, but one must also bear in mind that the case is now entwined with the race for Premier League promotion. It
The FA is ever more aware that it cannot afford to make a misstep in the process
is also about rivalry, ambition and what both clubs have staked upon the outcome of the season.
All the major racial abuse cases of the past 10 years – Luis Suarezpatrice Evra, John Terry-anton Ferdinand – have begun as just that and then become co-opted into the politics of the game. They became inseparable from how clubs were perceived, and how they treat their highest-profile employees when they step out of line.
Convening the Casilla case has absorbed a significant amount of FA resources and the hearing has been delayed by the calling of witnesses from up to four clubs. As well as players at Charlton and Leeds, there are understood to be others who were at the game in
September who have since departed. Attempts at gathering lip-reading evidence are also understood to have caused issues. Cases such as Casilla-leko are when the FA is obliged to adjudicate on matters of racial justice, reputation and equality, which have the furthest-reaching implications for the individuals involved, played out against the backdrop of the usual power games of clubs. This is where a governing body proves its worth and tackles the hardest part of its remit as an independent regulator of the game. It was an independent commission, with the FA as de facto prosecution, that delivered the sensible verdict on Suarez in 2011 and then Terry a year later when, in the latter’s case, the higher burden of proof had led to his exoneration in court months earlier.
Yet the evidence suggests it is taking longer to resolve these cases with a workload that now extends to offences that have become commonplace in a digital era, like online gambling and social media. Football clubs also obey the demands of the fixture list above all else, even when there is a major disciplinary case alleging racism to be resolved, which is part of the reason why the FA finds itself adjudicating on Casilla-leko so long after the allegation.
It took three months between January and April 2018 for the allegation of racism made by Gaetan Bong, then at Brighton and Hove Albion, against West Brom striker Jay Rodriguez, to be investigated by the FA and found by a commission to be unproven. In 2011, the Suarez-evra case took two months and five days from the original allegation to the guilty verdict. Terry’s guilty verdict in September 2012 took 11 months from the game in question, but only because it was delayed by a court case. The Casillaleko case has taken a significant part of a season to convene and, when the verdict comes, one suspects that will not be the end of it. These cases are about something much more profound than just the game itself, but it is the game that inevitably causes the delay, and the FA is ever more aware that it cannot afford to make a misstep in the process.
So much is at stake for all sides which is why, almost five months down the line, only now is the game ready to resolve the issue.