Quote ="saints35 bulls0"...for failing to take action to stop homophobic chanting aimed at Gareth Thomas. news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 772418.stm'" So the club: - Now have a CD that they play every time they hear any obscene chanting - Have installed more CCTV around the ground - Have stewards/police near every exit and more in general around the ground. Gareth Thomas has fined this club himself, Shaun Long and numerous other players have had a bit of banter towards them for being fat or whatever and taken it on the chin and haven't gone running to the press. The same in football applies, the RFL are so biased towards the big clubs it is just outrageous.

Quote ="saints35 bulls0"...for failing to take action to stop homophobic chanting aimed at Gareth Thomas. news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 772418.stm'" So the club: - Now have a CD that they play every time they hear any obscene chanting - Have installed more CCTV around the ground - Have stewards/police near every exit and more in general around the ground. Gareth Thomas has fined this club himself, Shaun Long and numerous other players have had a bit of banter towards them for being fat or whatever and taken it on the chin and haven't gone running to the press. The same in football applies, the RFL are so biased towards the big clubs it is just outrageous.

=#0080FFI don't think it was malicious, but that doesn't mean chanting about it's acceptable either so I think I'm entirely justified in expressing my thoughts as I have, thank you.

It's not the best example, but Sean Long is regularly abused and called "Gypo" and suchlike. I don't think that's particularly fair either, but it's not malicious.

Well the reports would be wrong then. I was smack in the middle of the East Stand for the Crusaders game last month and there was not 1 single chant directed towards Mr Thomas.

That seems incredibly harsh to me. A couple of grand maybe, but £40,000!



Jeeze!

=#0080FFLet's not turn this into a "they did this, they did that" because that's not the point. It's almost definitely occurred at other grounds but unfortunately for Cas, we're the club who have been identified and furthermore punished.

Probably because you were the first? Wasn't it his 1st away game?

Whilst Thomas has stated that he wanted to let the matter drop, he's the one who mentions it and whines about it in the media at every opportunity. I fear that's also had an impact on this punishment which I agree with the majority, is ridiculous.

exactly how can a club stop fans singing? Short of a water cannon I don't really see what more they can do except appeal over the pr system.

=#0080FFNo idea, quite possibly so.



=#0080FFI can understand why some would think he has been moaning about it to the media, but I think it's likely that its more the media are the ones asking him the questions and he's simply answering them.

In which case he could brush past it in the sense that he [iwanted[/i to let it drop; or take the opportunity to slate Cas, again.

What a stupid fine. I mean, how could cas as a club stop it?

No-one wants to stop fans singing...however chanting homophobic abuse is not singing..
CCTV should be able to identify undesirables from the grounds, and fans who just want to go with their families to enjoy the game can always reports the undesirables to their club, also steward control can play a part.

use of the PA system to tell people to shut up.
use of stewards in the problem area to turf people out who are doing it.
use of CCTV to identify offenders and ban them for life.

did they do any of this stuff on the day in question?

when Saints had a televised BBC cup game a few years ago which was Terry Newton's first game against Saints since his 6month ban for assaulting Long and Gilmour there were numerous appeals by the club pre-match for fans to avoid using offensive language. Eamonn McManus mentioned it in his programme notes and there were a couple of burly 'stewards' on the Popular Side ready to get people out if they did anything untoward. Its clear that there are going to be 'issues' around Gareth Thomas so all clubs should be prepared in advance to take action against any fans who do anything.

i can not believe this decision whats so ever its political correctness gone mad.

will it stop chanting towards refereeing decisions or players weight or supporters singing towards other fans ?no of course not.

will tapes of sky games be dragged out where you can clearly hear fans abusing referees or players been chanted at so those clubs can be fined ? not a chance

will any clubs be fined in the future for what fans sing ? not a prayer

this is a clear case of the rfl throwing their weight around aimed at a club who dare not respond for fear of repurcussions in the near future,the rfl are killing our sport and they wont be happy until they have ripped the guts out of the clubs that have made this game what it is.

Yep, and if Cas have not taken steps to try to prevent this happening again, they deserve the fine. This is something a club can only respond to - even with the best (realistic) system in place, you can't prevent people from behaving badly initially.
How long did the chanting go on for? Was there any attempt to stop it? Did the club try to identify the perpetrators?

But we have, see my other post.

This was bigotted abuse. What does and does not represent bigotry is subjective. As a rule of thumb though, if you can put -bashing behind a term, to describe an act of hate violence you're on shaky ground.

My implication was if they have, then they don't deserve such a big fine, or any at all if the response was thorough.

Good we dont need this **** in our game well done cas fans bringing the game down

So does that mean then when Paul Cooke was playing for kr he could lodge a complaint against fc fans when they were singing die die cookie cookie die ???? And for the idiot that was talking about kr fans singing about homophobic songs there was not a single chant about him which did suprise me as I was expecting it as u always get sum idiots that spoil for every one

UH?

I am sure most clubs can recount abuse a player is subjected to...Long etc.....sadly it is the nature of the beast in sport, however racism and homophobic behaviour is taking banter/abuse to a different level and is totally unacceptable any where in life, let alone on a terrace which is full of families with children.

They were 'just' sick, not bigotted.
When it happened at HKR it was their responsibility (see 2007 pitch invasion).

I've got a hunch that the VT might not want another Rovers-Hull bunfight, as it's a thread about Cas.

Ian nit starting anything like that just stating a fact that's all as it was the first thing that came to mind so I thought I would mention it

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.