Bernado Silva misconduct charge: one game ban, £50k fine

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Fines for racism in sport in the past. How can £50k be right bearing in mind the FA have agreed it was racist.

September 2011 - Bulgaria
In a similar incident to Monday's, Bulgarian fans directed monkey chants at England trio Ashley Cole, Theo Walcott and Ashley Young during a Euro 2012 qualifier in Sofia. Punishment: £34,320 fine

April 2012 - Porto
Mario Balotelli was subjected to monkey chants from Porto fans while playing for Manchester City in a Europa League game. Punishment: £16,700 fine

June 2012 - Russia
Russian fans made monkey noises at Czech Republic full-back Theodor Gebre Selassie during Euro 2012. Punishment: £24,203 fine

June 2012 - Spain
At the same tournament, Spanish fans directed racist abuse to Italy striker Balotelli. Punishment: £16,137 fine

October 2012 - Lazio fans were heard making monkey noises at three Tottenham players - Jermain Defoe, Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend - during a Europa League group game at White Hart Lane. Punishment: £32,500 fine

August 2019 Millwall have been fined £10,000 and told to "implement an action plan" after it was ruled some fans chanted racist language during an FA Cup game.

It will be interesting to see what the next raft of fines will be for transgressing the FA 'rules'. £50k is now the threshold. Incidentally, anyone know of a fine greater than Bernardo's? And we do need to bear in mind that every time the FA committee meets there are expenses to cover - all that first class travel from the shire counties, the chocolate biscuits, the hand-roasted coffee, and those exclusive tea leaves from Paris don't come cheap, china cups and saucers, the waiting on hand and foot - it all adds up!

 

[Zenmanc]

A US vs. UK thread might be a little bit of a reach for what's supposed to be a football forum. Maybe we should stick to the latter. Neither country are perfect and I don't think here's the place for that kind of loaded talk.

 

[threadkiller]

Choudhry...completely different punishment...no ban, 10% of Bernardo’s fine!

F’ing joke!

It is unbelievable that, given all the extenuating circumstances listed ad Infinitum regarding Bernardo, his case, his character, and even the supposed victim saying it was all a big laugh and making a statement of support...SOMEONE deemed it offensive, so it must be and Twatter is public so you must be heavily punished lest the snowflakes at Kick It Out are assuaged.

The fucking world is going to pot and people are clapping it along....until they get caught in the net, then they begin to see it for what it has become.

The problem is the wider context. I 100% agree that Bernardo meant nothing malicious by his tweet - but what about everyone else? There are racists and bigots in the world. How do you respond to some school kid using a similar meme, or the office bigot, targeting a black kid or black guy respectively. Because now they hide behind the justification that it's just a joke - look Bernardo Silva Did the exact same thing, and no one made anything of it. And now this behavior, however innoculous, is normalised. And then in a couple of months or a couple of years, the next controversy will arise, and the argument will be 'well this isn't so much different from Silva's tweet, why should we allow that and not this?". The waters become muddied,more gray areas. Racism thrives in the gray areas, few people are overtly racist nowadays, but not taking action, making a stance allows the boundaries of what we as a society consider acceptable to be pushed more and more. And that makes it shittier for everyone!

 

[domalino]

Maybe you should ask a few Bulgarians, but it still didn't stop the fa from handing out a bigger fine to Bernardo than the one UEFA doled out to the Bulgarian FA. That was some going when you consider the Bulgarians have a serious record of ignoring the antics of racist fans.

Oh so now its complaining not about Liverpool not getting fined but UEFA fines being bigger than FA fines? That seems relevant....

It's still total bollocks of course because the closed stadium will cost Bulgsria 10x the amount Bernardo was fined.

 

[cheekybids]

The problem is the wider context. I 100% agree that Bernardo meant nothing malicious by his tweet - but what about everyone else? There are racists and bigots in the world. How do you respond to some school kid using a similar meme, or the office bigot, targeting a black kid or black guy respectively. Because now they hide behind the justification that it's just a joke - look Bernardo Silva Did the exact same thing, and no one made anything of it. And now this behavior, however innoculous, is normalised. And then in a couple of months or a couple of years, the next controversy will arise, and the argument will be 'well this isn't so much different from Silva's tweet, why should we allow that and not this?". The waters become muddied,more gray areas. Racism thrives in the gray areas, few people are overtly racist nowadays, but not taking action, making a stance allows the boundaries of what we as a society consider acceptable to be pushed more and more. And that makes it shittier for everyone!

It didn’t need a 1 game ban & $50k fine.

when the ku klux klan plant a burning cross in someone’s yard I hardly think they’ll justify it cos Bernardo didn’t get banned,

 

[ballinio]

Time to draw a line under it - take the one game ban and the lad can play his way back into form.

So your called into the office by your boss & he says , listen somebodies complained about you being racist , they were offended by something you said , we beleive you’re not but we have to suspend you for a week & taken £1000 out of your wages .......just draw a line under it & we’ll see you in a week .

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Not much point in comparing UEFA and FA fines, as they're two completely separate bodies. I think everyone is in universal agreement that the fines/sanctions handed out by UEFA have been wholly inadequate, hence why they are no closer to solving the problem.

And all those are fan issues, not players.

Sometimes players are just in breach of regulations, and sometimes they're the first in breach of them.

 

[threadkiller]

It didn’t need a 1 game ban & $50k fine.

when the ku klux klan plant a burning cross in someone’s yard I hardly think they’ll justify it cos Bernardo didn’t get banned,

I think the ban is too much, and 50k is nothing to him, a. Couple of days wages - I think fines should be proportional to the ability to pay.

And I clearly didn't equate the kkk burning a cross to Bernard's tweet.

 

[Manc Born & Bred]

Not much point in comparing UEFA and FA fines, as they're two completely separate bodies. I think everyone is in universal agreement that the fines/sanctions handed out by UEFA have been wholly inadequate, hence why they are no closer to solving the problem.

My point was that this fine is totally out of proportion with other fines handed out for cases of racism. Millwall were only fined £10k!

 

[MillionMilesAway]

The 'face to face education' element?

Mandatory for such a charge witha guilty verdict - in the regs, I think.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

My point was that this fine is totally out of proportion with other fines handed out for cases of racism. Millwall were only fined £10k!

Fans not players, and in a lower division. Fans are not signed up to any protocol, players will be. These just aren't comparable. Now if there's an example of a PL player posting something similar this season and not being charged, then there's a meaningful comparison that can be made.

The ££ count would be far less if it was a Leyton Orient player, based on profile (and thus potential effect) and wage. No-one would think fining someone like that £50k would make sense.

 

[King KdB of Belgium]

Let someone from the FA/Premier League explain how a footballer called Wayne Hennesey who when doing a Nazi salute got away with it by claiming that he did not know that what he was doing was a Nazi salute. What plant has this guy been living on all his life, that he does not know what a Nazi salute was. Come on now what were they teaching him in history class when he was at school. You have to have missed every war film or news reel about Germany before and during the war, to have missed the Nazi salute. I cannot prove it but my guess is that he was telling pork pies to whoever was investigating this event where this happened.

What happened between Bernado and Benjamin was a joke between friends. Maybe it would have been better if Bernado had just texted him with the so called racist picture.

 

[cheekybids]

I think the ban is too much, and 50k is nothing to him, a. Couple of days wages - I think fines should be proportional to the ability to pay.

And I clearly didn't equate the kkk burning a cross to Bernard's tweet.

why do you think $50k is nothing to him? It’s his he’s earnt it & it’s not proportional to what he’s done. Good job prince Philip didn’t get a fine proportionate to his wages when he upset people.

He may want to donate it to a worthy cause.

It’s a joke !

 

[threadkiller]

why do you think $50k is nothing to him? It’s his he’s earnt it & it’s not proportional to what he’s done. Good job prince Philip didn’t get a fine proportionate to his wages when he upset people.

He may want to donate it to a worthy cause.

It’s a joke !

Because is a quarter of his weekly wage? Because its loss will not impact his life in any meaningful way? He literally will not notice it.

 

[St.Pauli support]

How did FA explain the amount of the fine in comparison to similar cases?
Surely there must be some transparency to understand the outcome.

 

[Rochdale Blue]

Oh so now its complaining not about Liverpool not getting fined but UEFA fines being bigger than FA fines? That seems relevant....

It's still total bollocks of course because the closed stadium will cost Bulgsria 10x the amount Bernardo was fined.

So you are excusing UEFA for their inaction over serious offences, Bulgaria should have been facing a long international ban, but condone the vilification of two City players by a media who are as utterly reprehensible as the racists and nut jobs that fill their comments sections. I haven't mentioned Liverpool getting fined, but now you mention it a look into how the Sterling story got to the media should be investigated.

 

[threadkiller]

why do you think $50k is nothing to him? It’s his he’s earnt it & it’s not proportional to what he’s done. Good job prince Philip didn’t get a fine proportionate to his wages when he upset people.

He may want to donate it to a worthy cause.
Sorry, a third of his weekly wage.
It’s a joke !

 

[MillionMilesAway]

How did FA explain the amount of the fine in comparison to similar cases?
Surely there must be some transparency to understand the outcome.

Only if there ARE any similar cases to refer to.
I think they certainly changed the regulations in the summer as well, and quite probably stated that they will have zero tolerance for racial stereotyping/abuse.

 

[St.Pauli support]

Only if there ARE any similar cases to refer to.
I think they certainly changed the regulations in the summer as well, and quite probably stated that they will have zero tolerance for racial stereotyping/abuse.

Ok, that means there isn't any transparency at all and they actually do what they want. As usual.

 

[Ric]

Fans not players, and in a lower division. Fans are not signed up to any protocol, players will be. These just aren't comparable. Now if there's an example of a PL player posting something similar this season and not being charged, then there's a meaningful comparison that can be made

I think the Wayne Hennessey case makes for a more compelling argument than the size of any fine. The FA accepted in that case that Hennessey didn't know what a Nazi salute was, which is quite obviously untrue, and dropped the charges. In Bernardo's case they accepted that "the player did not have any knowledge of the historical connotations of the Conguitos character", but banned him regardless. It smacks of double standards to me.

Anyway, the club and Silva have accepted the punishment, albeit reluctantly, so I think there's little point in dwelling on it. Time to draw a line under it and move on. Hopefully Bernardo can recapture the form he showed last season.