logo
West Ham fined £120,000 for homophobic chanting at Chelsea

West Ham fined £120,000 for homophobic chanting at Chelsea

The Guardiana day ago

West Ham United have been fined £120,000 for homophobic chanting by supporters during their 2-1 Premier League loss at Chelsea on 3 February, the Football Association said on Friday.
'It was alleged that the club failed to ensure its spectators and/or supporters (and anyone purporting to be supporters) did not behave in an improper, offensive, abusive, indecent or insulting way with either an express or implied reference to sexual orientation,' the FA said in a statement, adding it had also imposed an action plan on the club.
West Ham admitted the charge of misconduct in relation to abusive, offensive, discriminatory, homophobic chanting by supporters.
'The club has a zero-tolerance policy towards discriminatory, abusive and insulting behaviour, and those identified will, in addition to any criminal charges they face, be issued with club bans,' read a statement.
West Ham finished 14th with 43 points in the recently-completed Premier League season.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

HAMISH MCRAE: Rules are rules when it comes to trade... until all the major players ignore them
HAMISH MCRAE: Rules are rules when it comes to trade... until all the major players ignore them

Daily Mail​

time19 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

HAMISH MCRAE: Rules are rules when it comes to trade... until all the major players ignore them

You cannot, Mr Bailey, get the toothpaste back into the tube. Last week the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, gave a speech to investment managers in Dublin on how important world trade was to global growth and how the system had to be reformed. So far, so good. But when you go through the detail it was all about trying to rebuild trading relations with Europe and how to make the so-called 'rules based' world trade system work better. And the problem there is that the world has changed. The UK will not go back to anything like a pre-Brexit relationship with Europe, and the US will not go back to a pre-Trump approach to global trade. The task for British political and financial leaders is to exploit the opportunities that have arisen, rather than hark back to a none-too-brilliant past. On Brexit, the Governor was careful to make the disclaimer that as a public servant he didn't take a position on it, but what he said had a clear spin. We had to 'minimise negative effects on trade' and that the changing relationship with Europe has 'weighed on the level of potential supply'. At least he didn't cite the Office for National Statistics' calculation that in the long run Brexit would cost 4 per cent of national output. On that figure I prefer the comment of one of his predecessors, Mervyn King, arguably the most notable UK economist of his generation: 'They can't possibly know that. They just make it up.' Nor did Bailey refer to the determined drive by Europe to make banks shift their business and people to EU centres, including Dublin. Instead it was all about trade in finance being 'a two-way street', failing to mention that the UK has a huge surplus on exports of financial services, or indeed that there were 678,000 jobs in the City of London at the end of 2023, some 30 per cent more than in 2016. Of course we need as good a relationship as possible with all trading partners, but we need to acknowledge that, insofar as the City has been successful post-Brexit, it is despite hostility from Europe. As the still bubbling row about transferring euro-derivatives clearing from London to the EU shows, realistically that hostility will continue. On world trade the Governor acknowledged that the system has come under too much strain 'and it is incorrect to dismiss those who argue for restrictions on trade as just wrong-headed'. And the blame for imposing that strain goes mainly to China, which as he noted, heavily subsidised key industries to help them dominate world markets. China imposed 5,400 'subsidy policies' between 2009 and 2022, two-thirds of the global total. He made the point, too, that it was reasonable for countries to seek security of supply, but suggested they do so by dealing with reliable partners rather than trying to bring production back home. These are sensible comments, in particular acknowledging that Donald Trump has a point and China has abused global trading rules. He notes the damage done to trade by Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He points out how important trade in services is, particularly for the UK. It's an interesting, thoughtful and conventional analysis, and maybe that is what we should expect from a central banker – but I fear it is a naive one. Why? Take Europe. There is a huge trading imbalance between the UK and EU. They sell far more goods to us than they buy, and we export more services to them. But they are not going to change their rules to increase their imports of services. Take China. It's not going to stop subsidising its industries for fear of getting ticked off by the World Trade Organization. As for the US, it has given up on the whole International Monetary Fund-WTO system, that's that. So instead we have to negotiate our way through a bilateral trading world. The UK has made a good start. There are lots of reasons to attack our Government's financial policies, but doing deals with the US, the world's largest economy, and India, soon to be the third largest, deserves to be welcomed. We seem to have a slightly better relationship with Europe, and I don't see why we shouldn't get on with China. Let's try to be nice, as Andrew Bailey was in Dublin, but let's be aware that the rules-based order is dead.

Sunderland captain Dan Neil, 23, lined up for shock £15m transfer to Serie A giants with Jobe Bellingham also set to go
Sunderland captain Dan Neil, 23, lined up for shock £15m transfer to Serie A giants with Jobe Bellingham also set to go

Scottish Sun

time26 minutes ago

  • Scottish Sun

Sunderland captain Dan Neil, 23, lined up for shock £15m transfer to Serie A giants with Jobe Bellingham also set to go

Scroll down to see Neil's stats CAP IT OFF Sunderland captain Dan Neil, 23, lined up for shock £15m transfer to Serie A giants with Jobe Bellingham also set to go Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ITALIANS Roma are poised to make a shock move for Sunderland skipper Dan Neil. South Shields-born Neil, 23, led the Black Cats back to the Premier League via the play-offs last week — but could now be off to Serie A. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Dan Neil helped his boyhood club to Prem promotion Credit: Getty Roma are keen on the hard-running midfielder who is aware of their interest and a £15million deal could be thrashed out. British players are respected in Italy right now off the back of Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour helping Napoli to the title. Neil's move would rock Sunderland, though, who are already preparing to lose Jobe Bellingham. The 19-year-old is already talking to clubs in Germany and likely to leave in the aftermath of their 2-1 win over Sheffield United. Bellingham joined the Black Cats for £3m in 2023. The midfielder has since played 90 times, scoring 11 goals. He is a regular for England's age group sides, and has so far earned four caps at Under-21 level. Speaking after winning promotion last week, Bellingham told Sky Sports: "I always believed, you have to believe. BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK 4 Jobe Bellingham was a key figure for Sunderland this season Credit: Shutterstock Editorial "When you've got supporters like this and a group of lads like that, you always have to believe. "I always believed and I know people doubted us and that's understandable, we lost a few games, people talk about momentum. Jobe Bellingham takes swipe at Sky Sports pundits in live TV interview before awkward moment with panel at Wembley "But I think we did enough, we showed enough throughout the season for people to at least give us some credit going into the play-offs. "The typical 'inexperienced' by all the ex-pros that speak on Sky but we've just proved that don't matter. "You need experience, of course, with youth like at Sunderland you play loads of games you get that experience. "You get experience by failing and we failed together so many times and in the end we come good." Neil, meanwhile, burst onto the scene after debuting in 2018. The all-action midfielder has since become captain of his boyhood club. Neil has played 197 times for Sunderland, scoring 12 goals and laying on 20 assists. 4

RACHEL RICKARD STRAUS: I fear Labour is set to slap tough new rules on where you invest your Isa
RACHEL RICKARD STRAUS: I fear Labour is set to slap tough new rules on where you invest your Isa

Daily Mail​

time27 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

RACHEL RICKARD STRAUS: I fear Labour is set to slap tough new rules on where you invest your Isa

It is all but certain that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will slash the amount that we can put in cash Isas. She has repeatedly refused to deny that she will – and industry sources suggest the most likely limit will be £4,000 of our total £20,000 tax-free allowance – the rest to be used only for investing. But details hiding in official savings figures that have until now been overlooked make me fear that far more Isa restrictions are on the cards. Here's why. Reeves has stated two motivations for meddling with Isas. The first is helping people to get a better return on their savings. Her theory is that if she restricts the amount we can save tax-free in cash we will invest instead (whether this strategy will work is debatable: it is more likely that we will just divert our cash into ordinary savings accounts). The second motivation is the one underlying all of Reeves's decisions: to help drive economic growth. This ambition will not be fulfilled simply by restricting cash Isa limits. Even if it leads to a wave of cash flooding into financial markets, only a small pool of it will go into UK companies. New investors are likely to put money into popular stocks – such as Nvidia, Meta and Apple – rather than favouring the UK. The UK makes up only 4 per cent of the global stock market, so an investor opting for a well-diversified portfolio would be unlikely to put much into this country. That's why, if Reeves wants to achieve her aims, she will have to force us to invest in assets that would boost UK growth. She may insist that a portion of stocks and shares Isas must be directed at UK companies. She made a similar demand of pension funds last week – and sources tell me this is being discussed for Isas as well. It wouldn't be the first time such an idea was mooted – the previous government considered something similar when it tried to launch a British Isa that savers could use to invest in UK companies. The next clue that Reeves will force – or incentivise – savers to invest part of their Isa allowance in the UK is in the Premium Bond figures. Premium Bonds hold so much of our cash that if encouraging us to invest more was her sole priority, she'd be slashing the amount we can put in them too. From a saver's point of view, Premium Bonds offer an even poorer return than cash Isas. At least in an Isa you earn interest. With Premium Bonds you're simply holding out for a prize. There are millions more holders of Premium Bonds than cash Isas – around 24 million versus just 14 million – and we hold a stonking £127.7 billion of cash in them. As many as 1.2 million savers hold the maximum permitted amount of £50,000 in Premium Bonds. No doubt plenty of that cash could be earning a better return if invested instead. If her priority was to get better returns for savers, she would slash that maximum. But, of course, she won't. Not just because it would be unpopular – that has not stopped her in the past. But because, unlike cash Isas, money saved in Premium Bonds does help drive economic growth. Premium Bonds are one of the products sold by NS&I to bring in billions for the Government for it to spend. It is a form of government borrowing – but one that doesn't appear on the books like other types of debt. Her willingness to overlook poor returns for savers in Premium Bonds shows where her priorities lie: economic growth first, savers' wealth second. The third clue lies in the official Isa figures from HMRC. They reveal that restricting the amount we can save in cash to encourage us to invest more will not work. Until 2015, Isa allowances were restricted just as Reeves is currently planning. You could only put a proportion of your Isa allowance in cash – the rest had to go in stocks and shares. If Reeves is right that savers need to have their cash Isa allowance curbed to get them to invest, you would expect that savers might have flocked to cash as soon as the rules were abolished in 2015. But they did not. In fact, when they were permitted to save as much of their allowance in cash as they liked, they chose to invest more. Before 2015, for every £10 going into a cash Isa, £4.10 went into a stocks and shares Isa. After 2015, for every £10 going into cash, £5.90 went into stocks and shares, analysis by investment platform XTB shows. The proportion going into stocks and shares has ballooned – we hold £431 billion in stocks and shares Isas, compared with £294 billion in cash Isas. So the Chancellor can't use the excuse that she needs to restrict cash Isas to get savers to buy more stocks and shares – they are already investing more. But that won't matter to her. The real motivation is to drive growth – and in this plan cash savers are merely a pawn. So what comes next? I fear the freedom to save and invest within our Isa however we choose is about to be clobbered on all fronts. Savers need to prepare for a regression back to 1999, before the Isa was even launched. Back then, savers were reliant on Personal Equity Plans. These were the predecessor of the Isa and offered tax-free investing but required you to put a proportion of your allowance into UK companies. That is where we're heading – back where we started, with our freedoms restricted, as if nothing had been learned.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store