Castleford Tigers have been fined £40,000 for unacceptable behaviour v Crusaders RL after homophobic chanting aimed at Gareth Thomas

The RFL love Cas. Like Cas can control what the crowd chants. This is a knee jerk reaction to GT's comments on the BBC. I wonder if they will take the same action if other clubs chant at him?

However, yet again morons cost the club!

That's a disgrace. Total garbage.

My god! The biggest over reaction in the history of the RFL.

Gary Connolly got far worse from the Saints fans (and probably a few more sets of fans too) over the years.

Why was that overlooked?

There hasn't been any other chanting/slurs from any other clubs, yet

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There might not of been chanting but there has been people shouting stuff at him.

He's got what he wanted anyway.

Indeed. A perfect description of bigotry and bigoted behaviour.

Ouch!

How do you know that?

While I don't in any way condone the behaviour which brought this about, there does rather seem to be a perception emerging whereby incidents are casually turned a blind eye to until they happen at Cas. At which point the offending club or player is made an example of by the powers that be.

Hey. Just because you're paranoid...

Isn't that a bigger fine than that imposed on the European football club whose fans repeatedly/collectively made monkey noises every time a black player touched the ball. Without condoning the actions of our homophobic morons you have to wonder if this punishment is yet another indication of the RFL exploiting any opportunity to undermine our case for continued membership of SL. IIRC the fine for the disturbance at last seasons Catalans game was far higher than incurred by HKR whose fans were castigated in the national media after invading the pitch to fight with Hull FC supporters.

By reading what fans of other clubs have put on various Crusader related threads, e/g "I heard a couple of idiots shouting stuff at him" (Bradford).

What happens to the fine money

Can someone remind me what fine Salford incurred for letting flares, that right actual smoking fire spitting flares off in the middle of the crowd at our place last season?

Are Salford responsible for crowd control and stewarding at Wheldon Road? If you wanted someone to be fined for that incident, it would be us.



Oh, and it's also irrelevant.




Not only can we (we have stewards after all) we're obliged to.

It's an absolute disgrace that the club have to suffer for what a handful of mindless morons chant at a game, how on earth could they have stopped it? The club do tell supporters not to swear or abuse anyone, but unless they make supporters wear gags at every game, there's little that can be done.

I don't like to hear abusive chanting at games, but it goes on at every ground I've ever been to whether it's because a player is fat, thin, ginger, has big ears or a big nose or maybe has one eye, but why is it just because a player is gay, it's suddenly blown out of all proportion and a national media story.

I've also been told that such chants have been an issue at other grounds, but rather unsuprisingly nothing has come of them.

I hope you are happy Mr Thomas, you've certainly made a name for yourself in rugby league, but for all the wrong reasons and certainly not on the field of play, where you should have been doing your talking!!!!

1) We have stewards and CCTV.

2) Gareth Thomas is to blame for being abused? Come on, get real. If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at the numpties who thought it would be big to homophobic and abuse a player, whose behaviour got us fined.

Is it worth adding that of the £40k fine we were given for the crowd trouble versus Catalans in 2009, half was suspended until the end of 2010. Therefore, half of this £40k fine may be the RFL "calling in" the suspended balance as a result of a repeat offence.

You're a disgrace to your club.

How on earth can you possibly blame the player who was abused?!?

It annoys me this, i said when the chanting was going on that we would get hammered for this.

The RFL dont have it in for Cas, they just make examples out of us, we were the first club who there were a substantial number singing the homophobic remarks. Every club will have fans that sing the homophobic songs but it was Cas where you could hear it.

i personally belive we will lose our liscence next year and i dont think we can blame it all on the board, it is the mindless n0bs that threw the bottles on the pitch and sang at GT that will have had a big bearing on the decidsion.

These prats have cost the club £60,000 in the last 12 months, thats could of been another quality player in our squad!!!

I honestly cant believe what our fan base has become. 5 years ago we were known as one of the best, most vocal, most loyal fans.......now we are known for having possibly the worst fans in the league, im not tarnishing everybody with the same brush but it is only the bad ones you remember!!!

Correct with a further £20,000 being suspended until the end of 2011

So in essence we have paid 60K already and another 20K being suspended

Excellent post.

Its another bad day for Cas, but it does seem there was a total apathy towards this situation from the club when it arose which has really cost the club dear.

As part of the Rugby Leagues efforts to promote and diversify itself it is the only pro sport signed up to the Stonewall Campaign against Homophobia in 2008.

Not acting in a very swift and major way would make a mockery out of the efforts that have gone into the sport to help raise our profile.

Rather than venting at the RFL I feel you should vent your frustration at the morons behind this chanting and the club should ensure they are not allowed to enter Wheldon Road ever again. You would think that a £60k fine with the threat of a further £20k hanging over a club would motivate them to act sooner rather than later.

at Wakefield - 1 of my wakey mates said it as gone on at there ground as well and that was a few weeks after the cas game. have also heard that it as gone on at a mtch against hull kr as well

How many times have we heard at our games, neutrel games and even on TV.....the Referee's a W....r! Has anyone heard of a team being fined for it? Is that not abuse? So why selectively do they pick out a couple of occassions when they've heard stuff at our games??

You'll all know who I mean when I say that we often hear Sparrow legs or Twiggy shouted at one particular linesman......Monopoloy man or it's him from Terry and June.....is that abuse in the eyes of the RFL? or just a bit of banter!

I am not condoning the behaviour when it becomes bitter, however these things do happen at every game in the league and at every level, yet we are the only ones to be fined.

I feel that we've been victimised again! Another opportunity to knock our 2011 franchise bid!

Keep your chins up guys, they'll never break our spirits!

You're an embarrassment.