=#8000FFIt depends which chants he heard, I only heard one, and that was the holding hands chant at the time Crusaders were at the WRE, so he would have heard that one,
I did not hear any other chants GT himself was attacking the Railway end with the team, he was the closest player on the pitch to my location when according to another account the offensive of the 2 chants were going on, so there is no way he would have heard it, it doesn't make it right but he also cannot complain about something he didn't hear, right?

let's get real here folks,how will the rfl be able to defend it's decision in awarding cas a £40,000 fine?
Would this ever stand up in a court of law?
what was chanted at that game was clearly wrong,but what could the castleford club possibly have done to prevent those clearly "biggoted fans" from chanting such homophobic bile?
i hope that common sense prevails here,and that the culprits are named and shamed and are banned from all sl grounds indefinately,that would solve the problem,fining cas £40,000 wouldnt,as they would shout the self same thing next season!

Depends on his out look on life. Maybe his coming out was still raw and he found it hard how to react to people making fun of it in 2 chants at a RL game.
Obviously he did take offence, other wise we wouldn't be talking about it now and cas would be 40 grand richer.

=#8000FFNo, any lawyer worth his salt would just put on a Sky game in court and say listen to the abuse that goes on at EVERY club, homophobic or not, abuse is abuse and it would be thrown out like a shot (especially if they showed the Wire fans chanting about the shower habits of convicts to Leon Pryce)

exactly,so i hope that the club receive the required evidence to ban these morons once and for all,then we will see what further action is deemed necessary by the rfl!
Lets be honest here,the cas club has been judged by a minority of imbeciles
does that warrant fining the club?

What are you talking about? Anyone has a right to take offence about absolutely anything they want. People take offence to all sorts of things all the time - there's no law against taking offence to things. I answered your original question but this embellishment is just stupid.

Why don't you respond to my assertion instead. Do you think it's naive of Gareth Thomas to immerse himself in Rugby and never, ever expect to hear any comment about his sexuality. And before you answer that you might like to consider what he himself said when he 'came out' in the Mail:

=#FF4000[iIt is the toughest, most macho of male sports, and with that comes an image. In many ways, it is barbaric, and I could never have come out without first establishing myself and earning respect as a player. Rugby was my passion, my whole life, and I wasn't prepared to risk losing everything I loved.[/i

[url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1237035/British-Lions-rugby-legend-Gareth-Thomas-Its-ended-marriage-nearly-driven-suicide-Now-time-tell-world-truth--Im-gay.htmlHere[/url

well said buddy, like I said I think Cas were hard done to as everyone has always done this but Cas get grief

Huh? Bearing in mid the question was directed at Poppy (which incidentally she answered) what are you on about?

I'm sure if these had been racist chants directed at a black player there wouldn't be nine pages discussing this or the level of the fine. What other sports do is their business i.e. the FIFA situation. We should be thankful that our sport is willing to make a stand against discrimination in such a positive manner. As a minority sport which believes it has been discriminated against by the establishment I think we should all be able to recognise how important it is for us to fight issues of equality. Our sport has a rich heritage in issues of race at international level compared to the other big British sports i.e. football (first black player capped in 197icon_cool.gif, RU (first black player capped in 1906 but no other played for another 82 years), Cricket (first black international 1980). We should be proud that our sport takes matters of discrimination very seriously especially when others, like FIFA, obviously don't.

Hmm.. ok.

Imho the correct decision by the RFL

How any Cas fan can defend that sort of behaviour is beyond me and to think that the RFL has something against us is ridiculous.

Everyone at the club from the CEO to the fans is aware of the problems we've had and the trouble and speculation the club has come under because of crowd problems. Is it any suprise that with our record we weren't let off?

I hope the people in question are ashamed of their behaviour, it's just a shame that the club can't identify them and ban them for life, or at least make them pay some of the fine. After all it's their fault we got it in the first place

Im not saying its right mate but have wire or hull been given any such fines? they are worse than yours (prepare to be hammered). Im not saying you are saints but a level playing field, if you guys warrant £40k so do most of super league.

Castleford should have employed a "lawyer worth his salt"then in the hearing and then occording to your logic it wouldnt have got this far !!

I await the appeal but if i was a Cas fan(thank god im sane and not)i would be saving up for an increase in ticket prices next year.

Most of us aren't defending what happened, we are more angry at the severity of the fine. I am hoping the RFL show some consistency and come down equally as hard on any club who cannot control their fans.

I hope Cas run this through the courts and take it as far as possible, it shows the RFL have one agenda and it shows

Even Eddie said on Boots n' All last night, how on earth is a club supposed to stop the crowd chanting such things. Stevo obviously thought the fine was a good idea, confirming he is not Cas' greatest fan for me.

This thread is almost as embarrassing as the incident that lead to the fine. Some quite extraordinary comments and attitudes on display.

I understand that people are angry that the actions of a moronic few have lead to the club as a whole being punished, but lashing out at everyone else really isn't doing you any favours.

Stop putting words into my mouth. It's a shame for Cas we played first because we got fined, I didn't say I would be supportive of any other club getting fined - I would still be as appalled as I am. Of course I'd PREFER it to happen to a club that isn't my own, but that doesn't mean I would agree with it.

And I've never said people are homosexual through choice either.

How behind the times am I? No I wasn't chanting the songs, I mean i've just had to catch up on a full ten page thread. That was exhausting. For the record, I'm not gay, i'm not racist, i didn't chant at GT so no need for anyone to waste bandwidth questioning me on any of them.


So yeah, it's pretty obvious after all this that GT took it the wrong way. Despite the fact that he didn't want to make a big thing about being gay, he's rattled on about it like a woman. He should have just taken it like a man and ignored it all.


Lots has been discussed and i won't go over the many same arguments. But one thing about this whole country that annoys me is that we find racism and sexuality high on the list of things not to abuse others of, and quite rightly so. This because at the end of the day, it's how they are and there's nothing anyone can do about it, and it is after all 2010 and we're all just the same. But as a country, we find it totally socially acceptable to attack ginger haired people. So much so that TV and radio presenters can openly attack ginger haired people (could they do this to gay or black people) and this goes all the way through to RL fans chanting at grounds. We have people on this thread telling us that no one should separate white from black, gay from straight but these people know that the ginger chants go on in RL and it is totally acceptable. Someone explain to me what is different? Is it ok to chant at James Graham and call him a fat ginger barsteward (he is tubby and ginger, not sure about the barsteward bit) but not ok to shout at Gareth Thomas for being gay (when he is gay, he admits it, just check out the umpteen times he's told us all on radio, TV, newspapers and internet). I don't see a difference tbh, someone convince me otherwise.

I'm looking forward to the RL clamping down on gingerphobic chants at grounds, but will this happen before James Graham spits his dummy out and show that the RFL will not tolerate any such behaviour in our great sport or will they wait until after the horse has bolted again? The heavy fine for me is simply because GT hasn't shut up about it all in the press and they feel they have to make an example of this. Quite hypocrital for me when they allow much more to continually go on at every RL ground.

Do you never learn Marshy, that sort of statement caused all this trouble

While they were at it they should have had a go at him for being a big shiny baldy head too.

Most of the fans are angry at the severity of the fine and the few 'posters' who are tarring Castleford as a homophobic hotbed. The 'Holier than Thou' attitude sticks in the throat given the previous form of some other club's fans.

You, "sir", are a helmet of the highest order.
Yes, you deserve to be hammered, for making such a ridiculous statement.
Having been an everpresent on the Wilderspool/HJ terraces for the last 31 years, I have NEVER heard homophobic abuse (Ian Roberts, anyone), and racial slurs (which were common place across many sports) were a thing of the 80's.
Would you care to substantiate your comment, or were just tarring my (and Hull's club) with a rather nasty slur. PRAT

I have seen Wire fans beat an old man to death with his own walking stick, just to steal his dog. They also swore while they were doing it. The stewards did nothing, and the RFL gave them a grant for it to build their new stadium. How unfair is that?

Spits coffee all over the screen. WHAT. Shurely shome mishtake. Would we not have heard of this murder.