A soccer fan who racially attacked Brentford FC star Ivan Toney on social media has been banned from entering any UK stadium for three years, the Premier League club announced on Tuesday.
On October 14, 2022, Toney received racist insults on Instagram from 24-year old Antonio Neill of Blyth, Northumberland, UK, which the Brentford forward made public.
Northumbria Police and the Metropolitan Police opened a thorough investigation, as a result.
In January 2023, Neill appeared before a Newcastle magistrate where he admitted to sending the racist messages.
“Neill was handed (on Monday) a four-month sentence suspended for two years for the online offence as well as a three-year football banning order – the first of its kind to be issued under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022,” said Brentford.
“The order forbids Neill from attending any regulated football match in the UK, which includes Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two and National League fixtures, as well as England home internationals.
“The banning order also prevents him from traveling abroad to watch international friendlies, qualification matches and tournaments,” the club added.
A 24-year-old man who racially abused Ivan Toney on social media has been banned from every stadium in the United Kingdom for three years in a first-of-its-kind ruling pic.twitter.com/G96IHrx9U6
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 14, 2023
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Commenting on the case, Northumbria police and crime commissioner Kim McGuinness said Tuesday: “If you are going to choose to be vile and abusive to others, doing it from behind a computer screen or on your phone doesn’t mean you’ll get away with it, far from it.
“As this case shows, Northumbria Police can track you down and I hope this banning order demonstrates how seriously officers take hate matters and that it paves the way for other offenders to face similar punishment in future,” McGuinness said.
“This is a first and I am proud of Northumbria’s involvement in making it happen,” McGuinness added.
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