Wolverhampton Wanderers have become the first club to be sanctioned by the FA over supporters engaging in homophobic chanting.
The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust welcome the FA’s decision and reaffirms its commitment to working with Chelsea FC, Chelsea Pride, and other groups to eradicate homophobic and offensive chanting.
In January 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) declared the use of the chant as a prosecutable hate crime. In addition to this, the offensive chant is now a breach of Football Association (FA) rules.
In the latest case, Wolverhampton Wanderers have become the first club to be sanctioned by the FA under its rule E21, and fined £100,000. Wolves have also had an Action Plan imposed because of their inadequate response to the incident where two separate episodes of homophobic chanting were clearly heard around the ground. The Action Plan requires the midlands club to review its procedures for handling and responding to such issues and to review the way in which updated policies are communicated to their supporters.
“Included in the action plan imposed alongside the fine and to begin from the 2023/24 season, the club has to communicate the outcome and response to the charge on their website, social media and in the next matchday programme.”
As a consequence of this incident at Molineux on 8th April 2023, one supporter also received a fine and a 3 year Football Banning Order (FBO), the recommended sanction for a first time offender.
There have been a number of other individual cases where fans of opposition teams have been found guilty of the same offence.
In July 2023 a Fulham fan received a fine and a 3 year FBO for homophobic chanting at our game at Stamford Bridge in February 2023.
Also in July, A Leeds fan was fined and given a 3 year FBO following our game at Stamford Bridge in March 2023.
In March 2023, during our game against Everton, an away fan was accused of homophobic chanting and was found guilty in May 2023, again issued with a fine and a 3 year FBO.
In May 2022 a Spurs fan was convicted of this hate crime by chanting homophobic abuse at our home game in the February.
Chelsea players and supporters have become too familiar with these appalling and homophobic slurs. Pink News explains why the chant is homophobic along with a version of the history of the term. The article also acknowledges the tireless work of Tracy Brown, Chair of Chelsea Pride, in raising awareness of the discriminatory nature of the slur as part of Chelsea’s #NoToHate campaign.
Discriminatory and abusive Incidents occurring at home games can be reported on the Chelsea web site here.
