Dele Alli plans to file appeal against FA charge for private Snapchat video

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli will appeal the charge by the FA for his Snapchat video mocking a man regarding the outbreak of the Coronavirus outbreak.

The Evening Standard says that the England international will get his appeal in prior to the 5pm deadline today, ultimately leading to a personal hearing between the two sides.

Alli has until 5pm on Thursday to make a final decision and if he opts to appeal he will be granted a personal hearing, where he will be able to make his case to the FA.

If he appeals, Alli hopes to avoid a ban by arguing that the video was a misguided joke and not shared on a public forum.

Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva was fined £50,000 and banned for one match in November for a tweet about team-mate Benjamin Mendy, but Alli believes his case is different because he posted the video to a closed Snapchat group.

It’s been a few weeks since this video appeared on social media involving Dele with this rather insensitive joke. While there’s no defending the content of the video, it is important to note that Dele did not post this publicly. He shared it with a private group on Snapchat with friends, but at least one of them opted to sell the video to media outlets. This doesn’t absolve him, of course, but every bit of context has to be taken into consideration for his appeal.

Dele has apologized for the video more than once and understands he never should have done it, but now he’ll have to convince an independent panel that he shouldn’t miss any matches for this. At minimum, he will eat a sizable fine. As mentioned above, Bernardo Silva of Manchester City went through a similar process last season and ended up with a suspension, though his tweet was public.

Tottenham will learn of the midfielder’s fate quickly, at least. The panel will determine what punishment to hand down in the next ten business days, meaning a decision will be given by March 19 at the latest. A potential suspension would affect him for Spurs’ home matchup against West Ham United on March 20.