Quote (WNxIrvine @ 23 Sep 2016 19:38)
Burnley striker Andre Gray has been suspended for four matches after being found guilty of misconduct in relation to comments he posted on social media.
Gray, 25, had been charged by the Football Association for bringing the game into disrepute over homophobic posts he made on Twitter in 2012.
He apologised and asked "for forgiveness" for the posts, saying he was now a "different person".
Both the club and the player have accepted the ban.
Gray's ban starts with Monday's Premier League game against Watford at Turf Moor and he will miss further fixtures against Arsenal, Everton and Southampton.
He has also been fined £25,000.
"We believe this charge, regarding historical social media posts, should now also serve as a warning to all professional footballers, and participants in the wider sporting field," Burnley said in a statement.
The tweets, which also contained offensive terms, were posted when Gray was playing for non-league Hinckley United.
Now, I'm all for trying to stomp out footballers being bellends, but where on earth do you draw the line? Burnley punished for stuff this guy posted on twitter when he was playing non-league football. Seems ridiculously excessive to me.
I agree that he shouldn't be charged with misconduct now, but tbf someone who says that gays should burn and die should be punished by the law rather than the FA