This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
On June 11, 2020, the Football Association handed Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli a one-match ban for joking about the coronavirus in a social media video.
Published on February 26, the video showed Alli making fun of an Asian man in an airport departure lounge, wearing a face mask and captioning it: “Corona whattt, please listen with volume”.
The video then cut to an unsuspecting man of Asian appearance before panning to a bottle of antiseptic hand wash, with the caption: “This virus gunna have to be quicker than that to catch me”.
After the video sparked outrage, Alli deleted the post and apologized on the Chinese social media network Weibo.
As a result of the misconduct charge, Alli was fined £50,000 ($63,000) and ordered to attend an educational course.
“Dele Alli has been suspended for one match with immediate effect, fined £50,000 and must undertake a face-to-face education course,” an FA statement read.
Following the ban, Alli expressed regret for his action, stating: “In response to the FA decision, I would like to apologise again for any offence caused by my behaviour… I’m grateful that The FA has confirmed that my actions were not racist because I despise racism of any kind.”
