Burnley player Andre Gray banned for four games, to pay £25k fine over ‘burn gays’ tweets
Andre Gray
Premier League footballer Andre Gray has been banned for four games by the FA over tweets suggesting that gays should be “burned”.
Andre Gray, a striker for Burnley, had faced criticism after shocking homophobic tweets from 2012 resurfaced online.
He wrote: “Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #MakesMeSick”
Now the FA has moved to ban Gray for four matches, despite him asking “for forgiveness” for the tweets from 2012.
On the official Burnley website, the club said: “Gray was found guilty of six aggravated breaches of FA Rule E3(1) regarding comments deemed to be ‘abusive and/or insulting and/or improper and/or bringing the game into disrepute’.
“The breaches also included reference to an “aggravating factor”, namely, sexual orientation and/or gender and/or colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3(2).
“Gray admitted three of the breaches, but denied a further three. However, following the Independent Regulatory Commission hearing, on Thursday, September 22, these three were found proven.”
Gray will also not appeal, will “attend a one-to-one FA education course”, and has agreed to pay a £25,000 fine.
Gray said previously: “I would like to respond to media reports with regards to previous tweets posted from my Twitter account.
“Firstly, I want to offer a sincere and unreserved apology to anybody I may have offended in relation to these tweets. The tweets were posted four years ago when I was a completely different person to the man I am now. I was at a very different point in my life back then – one that I’ve worked hard to move on from.
“Thankfully a lot has changed in my life since then. I have experienced a lot over the past four years and have had to take responsibility for a number of things in my life which has enabled me to mature and grow as a person since that time.
“I have a lot of regrets regarding a number of things I’ve done in the past and realise I have made some big mistakes, none more so than these tweets, but I would like to stress that I’ve worked incredibly hard to completely transform my life since that time.”
“To clarify, I do not hold the beliefs written in those tweets whatsoever. I can assure everybody that I am absolutely not homophobic and as said previously I can only apologise and ask for forgiveness to anyone I offended.
“Thankfully I am not the guy I was back then and will continue to work hard both on and off the pitch to become a better person.”.
