22 replies to this topic

[no13benny]

I think it's fair to say everyone except for the Castleford club and some of it's supporters seem to support the RFL on this issue, and their action is being applauded everywhere, even in soccer circles.

This is an unprecedented positive article about rugby league and the RFL, in a soccer context. We are so used to seeing a negative spin put on things, this was refreshing to read.

RFL & Gareth Thomas

[l'angelo mysterioso]

thanks for flagging that up mate

[no13benny]

another example...third link down
Enlightened sport


Any more please add

[mick wilson]

Its the right decision but I do feel sorry for the club Cas, as there for the grace of god go I , It could happen at any club anywhere, if they have repeated problems fairynuff . but any group of ###### up lads could turn up and cause a club serious financial problems in the future.

Edited by mick wilson, 04 July 2010 - 09:41 PM.

[Bitofaboogie]

I can't agree with homophobic chanting and the guilty individuals should be found and punished.

However, the punishment levelled at the Castleford club seems unjust and disproportionate.

It looks like the RFL are using this issue to destabilise Castleford and at the same time create some positive publicitry for the game.

Have Cas done something I don't know about?

I cannot see how they can be held responsible for the actions of individual idiots.

I mean, a few years ago Hull fans had a riot of vandalism at the McAlpine Stadium on national TV and little was done to the club by the RFL.

I can't see that this will stand up to a legal challenge should Castleford choose to make one.

It would have been interesting to see the RFL's reaction had this unfortunate incident occurred at Headingley.

[Bulletproof]

Apart from the Castleford fans making excuses and blaming Gareth Thomas I think the reaction to this has been positive for rugby league. At least it shows that we are against this sort of thing. Whilst I think the fine was a tad too high we can at least say this will not be tolerated in our game.

[Johnoco]

I cannot see how they can be held responsible for the actions of individual idiots.

They aren't. It was their reaction (or lack of it) that was the issue.

[no13benny]

I think that they are being particularly firm because of the incident at Castleford last year, where fans threw bottles on to the pitch after the Catalans game.

Some of that fine was suspended, but because of this bad behaviour they have been told to pay it, and have also hit them hard this time around.

I feel that referees and players should be protected better in general, but because of the uniqueness of this case, where one player in the Super League can be singled out (as things stand) I feel they have been strong to protect both him, and the sports reputation.

If Cas hadn't been in the news last year for fans behaviour, I feel the punishment this time around may have been more lenient.

If it had been any other club I'm sure their recent past would have been taken into account as well. The whole issue is looked at in this months Out on the Full on the podcast below.

[Bitofaboogie]

They aren't. It was their reaction (or lack of it) that was the issue.

What were the club expected to do that they didn't do?

[Wellsy4HullFC]

I can't agree with homophobic chanting and the guilty individuals should be found and punished.

However, the punishment levelled at the Castleford club seems unjust and disproportionate.

It looks like the RFL are using this issue to destabilise Castleford and at the same time create some positive publicitry for the game.

Have Cas done something I don't know about?

I cannot see how they can be held responsible for the actions of individual idiots.

I mean, a few years ago Hull fans had a riot of vandalism at the McAlpine Stadium on national TV and little was done to the club by the RFL.

I can't see that this will stand up to a legal challenge should Castleford choose to make one.

It would have been interesting to see the RFL's reaction had this unfortunate incident occurred at Headingley.

I think the issue is more to do with the steps taken to deal with it, rather than the incident itself.

It's hard to compare to the Hull incident at the McAlpine, as that was an RFL event (neutral ground), so the steps to avoid these incidents are the responsibility of the RFL, not the Hull club. Hull afterwards dealt with the incident by seeking to find and banning responsible individual, having fans sign up to a charter, etc. We were fined for fan misconduct.

I think the bulk of the Castleford fine is to do with the lack of actions taken place to prevent the incident occurring. "The tribunal was chaired by his Honour Judge Rodney Grant, who criticised the club for failing to take steps to stop the homophobic chanting, for failing to identify the perpetrators, for failing to challenge the chanting and for their failure to undertake a meaningful inquiry afterwards."

[steef]

I can't agree with homophobic chanting and the guilty individuals should be found and punished.

However, the punishment levelled at the Castleford club seems unjust and disproportionate.

It looks like the RFL are using this issue to destabilise Castleford and at the same time create some positive publicitry for the game.

Have Cas done something I don't know about?

I cannot see how they can be held responsible for the actions of individual idiots.

I mean, a few years ago Hull fans had a riot of vandalism at the McAlpine Stadium on national TV and little was done to the club by the RFL.

I can't see that this will stand up to a legal challenge should Castleford choose to make one.

It would have been interesting to see the RFL's reaction had this unfortunate incident occurred at Headingley.

With regards to the incident at the semi final I don't think Hull can be charged with failure to control fans in a ground where they are not responsable for stewarding and policing. If I remember the club took many measures at the boulevard to prevent any similar incidents. As for trying to destabilise Cas? give over.

[Johnoco]

What were the club expected to do that they didn't do?

I don't really know the ins & outs of the issue but speaking from my view, they certainly didn't seem to take it that seriously at the time.

[Terry180241]

Could someone please point out how it is possible to stop homophobic chanting before it happens as this is what was supposed to have happened at the match ?

This is the first time it as happened and the club are fined for not stopping it, so how do you stop fans from chanting when you do not know what they are going to chant.

Every week on Sky Rugby League match's there is chanting which is abusive to players and Officials and this is heard by possibley Millions and the Rugby League do nothing about it and yet something abusive (homophobic) is heard by a few (100 at the most) and they are fined £40,000 now tell me where the fairness is in that judgement.

All pressmen present did not hear anything even the RLF Match Administrator did not hear anything and yet the Newspapers who probably do not know where Castleford is have blown this out of all proportion and are ruining a Rugby League club just to sell newspapers.

I have been watching Rugby League at every ground for 50yrs and I have heard far worse at other grounds to Castleford and not a word as been said.

To me it looks as though the RLF will use this as an excuse to allow either Widnes or Leigh into Super League and commit Castleford to the Championship.
If the RLF are going to allow 12 Fans to do this to Castleford then Rugby League are going to sink into a canyon that they will have difficulty to get out of because whats good for Castleford is good enough for every other club which allows Abusive Chanting.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

To me it looks as though the RLF will use this as an excuse to allow either Widnes or Leigh into Super League and commit Castleford to the Championship.

That nasty little thought's occurred to me, as well.

[Bob8]

An announcement that racist or homophobic abuse will not be tolerated and that offenders will be banned from the ground. Stewards to remove offenders and active attempts to identify offenders. Maybe these actions were carried out, I do not know?

Terry, I do not think the RFL will need an excuse to remove Castleford RLFC from Super League. The will be a C licence again, quite clearly.

[RP London]

An announcement that racist or homophobic abuse will not be tolerated and that offenders will be banned from the ground. Stewards to remove offenders and active attempts to identify offenders. Maybe these actions were carried out, I do not know?

Terry, I do not think the RFL will need an excuse to remove Castleford RLFC from Super League. The will be a C licence again, quite clearly.

That is my understanding.. there are procedures clubs are supposed to follow pre match with regards the respect campaign.. whether these will have an effect or not are a different arguemnt, my understanding is that these were not followed and hence the charge of not doing anythig to prevent it.

we have health and safety rules here to stop metal getting through the system into the food, if it does but all due dilligence is done thn we can not get into major trouble.. if it is shown this is not done then all hell breaks lose, it sounds as though the same is applied here.. you need to cover yourself.. cas didnt do this by the sounds of it.

as for throwing thm out. for the last 3 years cas have been mentioned as one of those clubs squeaking along by the seat of its pants for a liscence if te division doesnt get expanded.. but now its all down to this? dont give me that, if they go out there are many many reasons i just hope these reasons are not glossed over by fans and the board by the "hard done to over chanting" argument being put forward already

[Terry180241]

The one thing I do know is that Castleford Pre-Match warn people about Abusive chanting and during the match they have a recording which is used when ever there is any unwanted Chanting but Castleford nor any other club in Super league or Championship have a warning about Homophobic/racist/religous chanting because no-one fore saw this happening and it is understood that this is the first time homophobia as been mentioned so how could Castleford fore see this happening to Mr.G.Thomas or anyother person so how could the Judge fine them for not stopping them.

This happened over a 10 second period out of the blue so how does that justify £40,000.

The RLF and Mr.G.Thomas plus is agent have done more damage to the game of Rugby League over the last few weeks than the 10 Seconds that occurred at Castleford could have dreamt of.

Mr.G.Thomas may have done a lot for the Gay persons in sport but he as done one hell of a lot of damage to the Rugby League Game its just a pity he did not do it a few weeks earlier whilst still in the Rugby Union World or did he wait on a purpose it really does beggar belief what he as done.

I personnally do not condone Abusive Chanting of any nature and really cringe when ever it is used but I do not think that what the RLF have done to Castleford will have done anything to stop it happening again because one afternoon/evening in the not too distant future a few drunken idiots will damage another club, mindst you it will be a club at the bottom not one of the protected ones at the Top.

[RP London]

The one thing I do know is that Castleford Pre-Match warn people about Abusive chanting and during the match they have a recording which is used when ever there is any unwanted Chanting but Castleford nor any other club in Super league or Championship have a warning about Homophobic/racist/religous chanting because no-one fore saw this happening and it is understood that this is the first time homophobia as been mentioned so how could Castleford fore see this happening to Mr.G.Thomas or anyother person so how could the Judge fine them for not stopping them.

This happened over a 10 second period out of the blue so how does that justify £40,000.

The RLF and Mr.G.Thomas plus is agent have done more damage to the game of Rugby League over the last few weeks than the 10 Seconds that occurred at Castleford could have dreamt of.

Mr.G.Thomas may have done a lot for the Gay persons in sport but he as done one hell of a lot of damage to the Rugby League Game its just a pity he did not do it a few weeks earlier whilst still in the Rugby Union World or did he wait on a purpose it really does beggar belief what he as done.

I personnally do not condone Abusive Chanting of any nature and really cringe when ever it is used but I do not think that what the RLF have done to Castleford will have done anything to stop it happening again because one afternoon/evening in the not too distant future a few drunken idiots will damage another club, mindst you it will be a club at the bottom not one of the protected ones at the Top.

god forbid Thomas is gay.. wht exactly has he done?? he didnt chant it! its not about what was chanted it is how it was dealt with and the attempt to prevent it. If they did everything the RFL asked them to do then they will win the appeal.. the judge does not believe they did everything asked of them.. whether they play the thing or not (did they that day?) is that all the RFL ask them to do? it is also what happened or more importantly did no happen afterwards.

I think everyone would agree that this hapens sadly but its how its dealt with..

to not foresee racist/homophobic chanting would have been stupid in the extreme.. anyone who did not see this hapening when thomas came over would be quite franly a fool./. we know these idiots are in the stands.. cas just seem to not have been on top of it as a club both pre and post the match and incident..

[Terry180241]

god forbid Thomas is gay.. wht exactly has he done?? he didnt chant it! its not about what was chanted it is how it was dealt with and the attempt to prevent it. If they did everything the RFL asked them to do then they will win the appeal.. the judge does not believe they did everything asked of them.. whether they play the thing or not (did they that day?) is that all the RFL ask them to do? it is also what happened or more importantly did no happen afterwards.

I think everyone would agree that this hapens sadly but its how its dealt with..

to not foresee racist/homophobic chanting would have been stupid in the extreme.. anyone who did not see this hapening when thomas came over would be quite franly a fool./. we know these idiots are in the stands.. cas just seem to not have been on top of it as a club both pre and post the match and incident..

Please inform me of any club PRIOR to this happening at Castleford have warned fans about chanting anything Homophobic,Abusive yes homophobic no, I have been to most grounds and have not heard any warning being given except to stop being Abusive.

I must be a O.A.P.Fool because I did not anticipate this happening and no he didn't chant it about being Gay but he did tell the Newspapers and unfortunatly the Castleford 15 idiots were the first to rise to it which was his first away game.

The Leeds idiots made accusations against James Graham which was heard by everyone who watched the game against St.Helens on Sky and yet nothing is done.

Every club in Rugby League have Abusive Chanting against refs which is equal in the least to Homophobic so if we are going to stop this chanting lets have fairness and deal with all clubs who are chanting Abuse/Racist/Homophobic/Religous.

If the RLF are going to be fair and seen to be fair then surely they are going to Fine every Home club £40,000 for every match when Foul & Abusive Chants are aimed at All Game Officials and all players

You obviously have not been to Castleford of late because I can assure you Castleford do have Pre Match Warnings how the club dealt with the matter Post match only the Club knows because until the RLF went public with the findings no one which I assume includes you and I knew anything had happened.

[ckn]

Mr.G.Thomas may have done a lot for the Gay persons in sport but he as done one hell of a lot of damage to the Rugby League Game its just a pity he did not do it a few weeks earlier whilst still in the Rugby Union World or did he wait on a purpose it really does beggar belief what he as done.

Everyone knows that every sport has its idiots in the crowd, only rugby league has done anything about it and has rightly gained plaudits from the media. That's not damage to the game, that's just adding credibility above and beyond the other sports that constantly bottle the issue.

Did you know that the RFL is the only major sport to have signed up to Stonewall's anti-homophobia campaign? Linky. If the RFL HADN'T done anything about this then it would have been absolutely pointless getting on board with that campaign. I've been a critic of the RFL for years on many things but on this they got it absolutely right.