Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 12:28 pm  

Let's face it the big shock about this is the punishment which the RFL have deemed reasonable to issue. Personally I think that a £40K fine is well OTT, and could have been avoided!!

If senior executives of CAS...RW and other cronies had personally contacted GT to appologise, followed up by a written letter from the board of Directors and the Chairman of the supporters clubs stating an appology on behalf of the club. That would have been a good start on behalf of the club.

The club should then using any camera's at the ground, identify those who were doing the chanting, report them to the Police and press charges against them. Following which they should be named and shamed and publically banned from our ground. Details of our actions taken, and the identities of these fans should then be handed over to the RFL, and the RFL should then ban them from all rugby grounds (don't ask me how they would enforce all this!!).

GT should then be contacted once again by RW, to again appologise and to report how seriously we have taken this issue and the action that our club has instigated in response to this unacceptable behaviour and that we will be vigilant in trying to prevent occuring again in outr game.

......If we had been pro-active in managing this situation we could have a) Dealt with it in such a manner that could have avoided it leading to a potential fine....and b) Turned this into a very positive situation for the future of the club, about how we will not tollerate this type of behaviour.

Once again RW and others at the club have absolutely no idea about running a business!! What a joke!!!

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 12:30 pm  

tropical1 wrote:

Whilst I am totally against discrimination of any kind, I am left wondering on one thing. The week after the game Gareth Thomas was involved in an inside sport programme where he talked about homophobia in sport and highlighted us, no doubt his was paid a nice tidy sum for this interview there was also his article from a column he writes in the press. After this article and interview were broadcast there have been no other mentions about the abuse this player has had to put up with at various games, which leaves me with the question why has only one club been singled out, am I being cynical and saying that money is the motivation behind this???? Why haven't other clubs been highlighted in the media etc.

Maybe he felt this was the worst abuse he'e suffered? I'm sure that Thomas has no personal agenda against Cas, why would he? I imagine that, for whatever reason, he felt that the abuse he suffered at Cas was worse than anywhere else. There are a variety of reasons why that might have been, not least that maybe the abuse levelled at him at Cas was worse than anywhere else.

This is a large fine no doubt, and it might create some future problems for Cas but in terms of staying in SL, you probably have bigger problems.

I welcome yesterday's announcement, the protection of our LGBT players and support is important. Remembering that there will be a number of LGBT fans in any given crowd, and it is the ones shouting homophobic abuse that should be unwelcome at our grounds rather than any LGBT fans.

Hopefully now clubs will know that this type of thing will not be tolerated by the RFL and act on it when it arises and not when forced to after the fact.

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 12:48 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Really? Why?

Sexuality essentially boils down to which orifices you choose to stick your reproductive organ into. Race is pretty much down to where your dad was when he made his choice. So one's a conscious personal choice, the other isn't.

And no, I'm not saying that berating or deriding others for the personal choices they make is a particularly attractive trait of humanity, but it IS a part of all of us. For the most part, people seem to accept that and develop the strength of character to rise above such remarks. "Sticks and stones may break my bones..." etc.

As has been pointed out by many, many others on this thread, people who choose to put down others because they're perceived to be 'not of a certain norm' - be that race, gender preference, hair colour, physique, whatever - are by no means exclusive to Castleford. It goes on at every Rugby ground (both codes) and at every other event drawing a large enough crowd too.

But it seems to me that focusing on the issue of 'whether calling someone a puff is right or wrong' is sidestepping the real debate. Is a £40k fine on the club fair and proportionate for what occurred, based on the measures the club could have taken to prevent it? I would suggest it ISN'T fair and proportionate. I would suggest that the club did all it could have been reasonably expected to do. And I can only conclude that someone somewhere is deliberately using this incident to try and undermine my Rugby club.

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 12:54 pm  

Disco wrote:

Sexuality essentially boils down to which orifices you choose to stick your reproductive organ into. Race is pretty much down to where your dad was when he made his choice. So one's a conscious personal choice, the other isn't.

And no, I'm not saying that berating or deriding others for the personal choices they make is a particularly attractive trait of humanity, but it IS a part of all of us. For the most part, people seem to accept that and develop the strength of character to rise above such remarks. "Sticks and stones may break my bones..." etc.

As has been pointed out by many, many others on this thread, people who choose to put down others because they're perceived to be 'not of a certain norm' - be that race, gender preference, hair colour, physique, whatever - are by no means exclusive to Castleford. It goes on at every Rugby ground (both codes) and at every other event drawing a large enough crowd too.

But it seems to me that focusing on the issue of 'whether calling someone a puff is right or wrong' is sidestepping the real debate. Is a £40k fine on the club fair and proportionate for what occurred, based on the measures the club could have taken to prevent it? I would suggest it ISN'T fair and proportionate. I would suggest that the club did all it could have been reasonably expected to do. And I can only conclude that someone somewhere is deliberately using this incident to try and undermine my Rugby club.

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:14 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Really? Why?

One is how someone looks, one is how they act.

EDIT: Or what Disco said...

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:27 pm  

Gazemous wrote:

One is how someone looks, one is how they act.

EDIT: Or what Disco said...

Both are who or what someone is.

Gareth Thomas didn't choose to be gay any more than any non-white player had a say in the colour of their skin.

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:32 pm  

OrangeConditioner wrote:

Both are who or what someone is.

Gareth Thomas didn't choose to be gay any more than any non-white player had a say in the colour of their skin.

So I suppose you'll be expecting the clubs whose fans refer to James Graham's ginger hair in a derogatory manner to get a £40k fine then?

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:39 pm  

OrangeConditioner wrote:

Both are who or what someone is.

Gareth Thomas didn't choose to be gay any more than any non-white player had a say in the colour of their skin.

Do the white players get to choose then?

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 2:15 pm  

Disco wrote:

Do the white players get to choose then?

Did I say that they did? No, no I didn't. But more on the point, what relevance is that?

No one is being murdered, persecuted, or generally discriminated against for being white or having ginger hair.

Unfortunately for Cas at this moment it is a hate crime to abuse someone based on their sexuality, the RFL have deemed it unacceptable to allow this to go on in a SL ground, not sure what complaints you have really. Or should illegal activity be condoned on our terraces as long as no one is really getting hurt?

Re: Tigers handed £40k fine : Wed Jun 30, 2010 3:15 pm  

What was actually sung at Gareth and how bad was it? the fine does seem very excessive, i think Castleford are unlucky in that the 1st clubs fans that gave Gareth any stick the RFL were always going to clamp down and make an example to nip it in the bud. I do think this fine will do the trick even though i never expected it to be this much. I did hear an interview with him where he says he would challenge any abuse he gets to make it easier in the future for people to play the game who are homosexual, perhaps he can be applauded for that, 1 club was always going to bear the brunt and im afraid its Cas