Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli is upset over his one-match Premier League suspension.
Alli said he was “betrayed” by a friend who sold a private Snapchat video of him mocking coronavirus – an act that has landed the Tottenham star a one-match ban.
Alli will miss his side’s first Premier League game of the restart against Manchester United next week after the Football Association finally delivered its ruling on a case that has been ongoing since February.
He has also been handed a £50,000 fine and must attend an ‘educational course’ after being found guilty of an “aggravated breach” of Rule E3, which included a reference to race and/or colour and/or ethnic origin and/or nationality.
The FA’s written reasons for the decision read: “The player explained that he decided to delete the video before he boarded his flight to Dubai.
“It was the following day that he became aware that he had, in his words, been ‘betrayed’ by someone on his Snapchat group and the post had been given to the media.
“An apology was made in which the player detailed that he had ‘let himself down’, but it was the player’s evidence to the commission that he did not regard the content of the video to be of a kind to ‘cross the line’ into conduct answerable under Rule E3, in particular as the video, in his opinion, “had nothing to do with the ethnicity of the man.”