POOLS FINED FOR RACISM
THE Football Association have handed Hartlepool United a four-figure fine after their supporters were found guilty of using racially-abusive language, gestures and noises during their National League fixture against Dover Athletic last September.
The club have been fined £7,500, including £5,000 suspended for 18 months, for breaking FA rule E20, meaning they “failed to ensure its spectators… refrained from using abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour which included a reference… to race and/or colour”.
An FA Independent Regulatory Commission came to the decision following a hearing in London on January 9 and details have now been released.
The hearing found the words “you black **** ” and/or “**** off you black **** ” were used by three supporters as well as monkey gestures and monkey noises made by “no more than a handful” towards Dover players Inih Effiong, Ricky Modeste and Jai Reason.
Striker Effiong celebrated scorthe ing a penalty in front of the Town End Terrace where Hartlepool fans stand, holding a finger to his lips in a ‘shush’ gesture and a burger was thrown by a supporter which struck him.
After celebrating with his teammates, Effiong then cupped a hand to his ear, directed at Hartlepool supporters.
Effiong’s celebrations, which were punished with a yellow card by the match referee, were likely to have antagonised the home fans but they “can in no way be said to explain, excuse or begin to justify the behaviour of the club’s supporters or followers that then followed”, the commission reported.
The commission noted that the only steward said to have heard racist language did not appear to have “even been interviewed or spoken to about the incident” by Hartlepool and the club failed to provide CCTV footage from the incident. The commission said: “For reasons we still do not fully understand, the club chose not to share the CCTV footage – which evidently shows more of the incident than the video footage – with FA or with us. We found that extremely regrettable.”
One individual left the stadium immediately after the incident, when identified by a player, before another individual was identified from the CCTV footage, arrested and removed from the stadium early in the second half.
The commission criticised the PA announcement made by the club at the start of the second half which was “not front and centre” in condemning misconduct by supporters but “instead took second place behind an expression of pride by the club in its supporters”.
Hartlepool were praised by the commission for their “exemplary” efforts in the steps taken following the match to “ensure that no recurrence ever takes place”.
The majority of Hartlepool’s fine was suspended because of the “substantial and real efforts that the club had made since the incident”.
In a statement released on Friday, Hartlepool announced they had banned two supporters from Victoria Park.