Dele charged by FA after leaked coronavirus video

You ever get the feeling like your Premier League football season is snakebit? A couple of weeks after a private Snapchat video leaked that showed Dele appearing to mock a random man of Asian descent in an airport implying that he might have the coronavirus, the Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder has now been charged by the Football Association.

Here’s the full text of the FA’s statement, as per the official website.

Dele Alli has been charged with misconduct for a breach of FA Rule E3 in relation to a social media post.

It is alleged that the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder’s post breaches FA Rule E3(1) as it was insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute.

It is further alleged that the post constitutes an “Aggravated Breach”, which is defined in FA Rule E3(2), as it included a reference, whether express or implied, to race and/or colour and/or ethnic origin and/or nationality.

He has until Thursday 5 March 2020 to provide a response.

This isn’t exactly an unexpected outcome — there were hopes that since this was a video intended for a private audience and Dele immediately apologized that he might skate past any football-related repercussions — but those hopes were always pretty slim.

And truthfully, escaping ramifications for his actions would probably send the wrong message anyway — I said when it happened that he probably deserved a ban for the same reason that Bernardo Silva deserved one after his racist tweet came out. I stand by that opinion today. It doesn’t mean that Dele is a racist, but he certainly did make a racist video, and that’s not great!

The silver lining is that, even with the appeals process, he won’t be suspended for Sunday’s home match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. And yes, there’s a chance that he could grovel his way out of a suspension into “merely” a hefty fine. But at this point I’d expect that he’d be suspended for at least one match. It probably won’t be the FA Cup Fifth Round match against Norwich on March 4, but it could be next weekend’s Premier League match at Burnley or the following Premier League tie against Manchester United. It almost certainly depends on how quickly Dele responds and when the FA decides to make a decision.

What do you think will happen next? Toby Alderweireld implicated in a Bitcoin embezzlement scheme? Steven Bergwijn mauled by wolverines? We have to be close to reaching the bottom, right?