I think it's ridiculous.

Im not sure what they have meant to have said, but fining a club for their crowd chanting something, is ridiculous.

Load of boll*cks.

Rather than resorting to throwing insults at all the Cas fans, which is against the AUP and could result in further action being taken against your account, why don't you read the [url=http://www.castigers.com/article.php?id=867official statement from the club[/url and acquaint yourself with some facts?

=#FF4000Whilst this is a sensitive issue, everyone needs to remember that there are rules on this site which need to be abided by.

Well i go home and away and have not seen a punch thrown, the only agro ive heard of was when Wigan fans were attacked in Warington town centre by a pub of idiots and i heard there was a skirmish in a pub in St Helens, hardly football factory stuff.

Im not throwing insults willy nilly, just responding that the fans who were chanting are morons not me as stated by whoever, as for the official statement ive read it thanks and am aware of the facts. A group of your fans abusing an opposition player, makes a change from opposition fans i suppose.

I'm sure these morans will think twice before they do it again now and if they don't i'm sure the 99% of proper human beings in the castleford support will be quick to remind them

=#8040FFI've sent Richard Wright an email with names and a picture of the culprits so they SHOULD be banned from the ground shortly.

Don't lie - you implied all Cas fans.



You're also derailing the thread with something that ought to have been dropped (and in most cases has been) 3 years ago.

I dont remember shaun long going to the media when fans and not just cas fans chant to him......or martin offiah when he had bananas thrown at him.

I even remember the fans chanting you fat barsteward to jimmy lowes, he turned to the fans and rubbed his belly and had a laugh with us. Thats the spirit it should be taken. Unfortunatly the ''cry baby'' thomas went running the media. Be man and take it on the chin.

As for the 15 chavs who have got us into this mess.......get lost and never enter the ground again.

Ryan Bailey gets far worse even now, from most clubs.

But at the end of the day, it appears from that statement that the main reason you got in trouble was for doing nothing about it. The least that you could have done is had the PA ask the fans to stop, which is what happens at most grounds when language of a non family relevance is sung.

The PA was put when this happened.

I'm sorry, but if I as a wet liberal can see that this fine is absolutely ridiculous then surely everybody else can?

Homophobia is wrong, no doubt, but chants directed to weak spots of visiting players is one of the realities of sport. Abusive chanting happens at 100% of games in most team sports, but the RFL have clearly reacted because of who the player is, the interest in him from the national press and arguably because of the club who can be blamed. I have little doubt that if it happened at Leeds, Bradford, Saints, Wigan, Hull FC, KR, Huddersfield, Harlequins, Catalans or Warrington, nothing would have been said. As it happened at one of the clubs up for the chop next year - Cas, Wakefield or Salford - it was both easy and convinient for the RFL to put a black mark against that club. It's just a shame that Gareth Thomas played at Cas before either of the other clubs, otherwise it would have been them in the dock.

I'm 100% behind the club in its appeal. They played the RFL's Respect message over the tannoy to drown out the chants, and play it at every game. As has been mentioned before, without individually gagging fans before a game, there's nothing else the club could have done.

A warning letter I would accept, the club admitted what happened and took steps to stop it. A £40k fine is absolutely disgraceful, and I look forward to every Super League club receiving equal punishment whenever an opposition player or official is abused in the coming weeks (should be 7 fines next week then).

It wont happen, it's only cas they (RFL) are after.
Cant you see it, it's so obvious.

Agreed.

I agree there should have been a fine at the club but think that ammount is ridiculous just wondering what has been the outcome of the st's wigan game where a steward got his jaw broke or the hull vs rhinos game where bottles were thrown ect, This is what annoys me most we seem to always be highlighted but no other teams are. I also think (this is not an excuse) that due to the very poor efforts from our bod ect that the frustration has boiled over now to the pitch and people are venting there anger at the players and officials ect. I also dont think the club do enough to promote a good atmosphere at the ground now and really need changing and some people with fresh ideas brought in to change things or i really fear for our club.

Several issues are raised here. I agree with action and indeed with setting examples as I cringed with shame when it happened. What worries me is consistency.

1 What if the club does everything possible yet issues still arise? Some clubs will suffer more due to local demography and social status locally. Do you up ticket prices to keep out undesirables? Clearly not as its hardly an inclusive sport then.
2 Is the RFL going to be consistent with such matters of crowd abuse? They have opened a can of worms here over what should be fined and what shouldnt.
3 Do they really feel that a liscense application should be affected by the actions of what is probably no more than 40 people.

Well done you idiots, the club has been fined about £1000 for each one of you. It think the RFL are right, but they have to get other decisions right around it.

So you wouldnt have a problem if the R.F.L had fined us instead of you? Hypocrite! For what its worth i think the fines excessive and unjust but you cant say you werent warned.I also didnt hear any homophobic chanting at Belle Vue when we played crusaders.I hope you have some success with the appeal as you can afford the fine about as much as we can!

And who was in charge of crowd control and security on that day? That's right, Castleford Tigers RLFC and our stewards? You want us fined for that as well, to show balance???

Not having a go but you should have done that straight after the game and the board should have acted,then the fine,if any would have been smaller.
Same happened after the bottle throwing incident,the Cas board didnt move trees to ban the "fans".
Oh and for all the Cas fans thinking he got chanted at at HKR this year,he didnt,Rayner got all the stick that day with him being due in court for sentancing the day after.

What a load of round spherical objects this fine is, I hope Castleford drag the RFL through the courts to get this sorted once and for all. They can show that chanting against referee's parentage or their alleged use of 5 fingers has and is going on and that to alienate Castleford is beyond reason and fairness, abuse is abuse no matter who it is aimed, What will the RFL do the next live game when the Ref gets it.... Nothing wait and see,

Not being a Cas fan it's easy to say the fine is OK as I deplore any type of personalised chanting at opposition players. However I think the RFL have merely made an example of Cas and that is wrong as all cases should be dealt with equally.

I remember the saints fans chanting " what the f@£$ is that" all the way through the NZ hake a few years ago, how many times have we heard fans chanting " you fat b@£$%@£" at opposition props.

If you watch the programme "sports last taboo" which featured GT then you will see the American basketball player saying that you shouldn't try to separate banter from abuse because banter to one man is interpreted as abuse by another.

I have met GT and he is indeed a great bloke who any of us would gladly have a pint with and he certainly doesn't deserve any abuse purely because of his sexuality. the thing is that most (99%) of the Cas fans will think the same and every club has a small 1% of "fans" that are bigoted, homophobic morons who are only happy when they are abusing someone else to try and make up for their own inadequacies.

I hope cas are successful in their appeal as it's one of the friendliest clubs I have visited as an away fan in over 30 years of following my team.

Where did I say that?

Yes I heard homophobic taunts yelled at GT by some wakey 'fans' - I also heard other fans telling them to shut up, and it stopped straight away. No chants.

I don't personally have a problem with shouting abuse at refs, as long as it's not foul and abusive or based on any kind of prejudice (I can only say this now that Ashley Rhino Klein has gone), it's part of the game.

Likewise banter - as long as it's humourous. Take the linesman - calling him a skinny whatever is not funny, but chanting 'who ate all the pies' at him got me chuckling!

This fine ought to be a wake-up call to fans. They can get their club into serious trouble, and if they want their cllub to survive they MUST act responsibly. We all need to police ourselves, and we should all be prepared to point out any trouble causers to stewards (except at KR, where the stewards ARE the trouble causers)

Personally, I hope Cas fail in their appeal BUT that the RFL quietly drop the 40K fine, on condition that Cas don't tell anyone, just to get the message across without killing the club.