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Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli has been charged by the FA for a video he posted on his personal Snapchat account, whereby he seemingly pointed the camera towards an Asian man and pointed to his handwash shortly afterwards, which came off as a derogatory comment considering the Coronavirus outbreak this year.
The video was met with a flurry of comments and was taken down almost immediately, as the England international was also wearing a face mask in the video and captioned it “Corona whattt, please listen with volume.”
Alli immediately took accountability of his actions and apologized on two separate occasions, after taking down his video from his Snapchat feed and was supported by his manager Jose Mourinho in the wake of his actions. The Portuguese tactician claimed that punishing him will not be necessary, as he already acknowledged his wrongdoing, adding that the former MK Dons player understood the severity of the situation.
"I feel that would be unnecessary, but I am nobody. I think it is unnecessary because the player understands the naivety of the situation, the player is a good guy, the player even in the dressing room has a big Asian friend that he loves [Son]. So there was no intention at all. He immediately regrets, immediately makes a public apology. I feel it is unnecessary but I am nobody."
Alli has been officially charged by the FA and has until March 5 to appeal against the sanction, which will then be reviewed by an independent panel. If found guilty, Alli will be slapped with a hefty fine, a ban and a mandatory education course, as was the case with Bernardo Silva last year for his Twitter incident involving Benjamin Mendy.
The 23-year-old will be available for Spurs' weekend encounter against Wolves and is expected to make a statement in the coming days, as he aims to put the unfortunate incident behind him and help his team secure a UEFA Champions League spot in the business end of the season.
