A man who racially abused Brentford striker Ivan Toney on social media has been banned from every soccer stadium in Britain for three years in what police described Tuesday as a “landmark ruling.”
Antonio Neill sent a racist message to Toney on his
Instagram account after the striker scored two goals against Brighton in a
Premier League match on Oct. 14.
Police started an investigation after Toney shared a picture
of the abuse and the message was traced to the 24-year-old Neill, who lives in
Blyth, a town in northern England.
Neill appeared in a magistrates’ court in Newcastle on Jan.
25 and pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message.
On Monday, he was handed a four-month sentence suspended for
two years as well as a three-year soccer banning order, the first to be issued
under a government act which became law in 2022. That widened the scope for
banning orders to be issued for online hate crimes relating to a person with a
connection to a soccer organization.
“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,” Northumbria police and crime
commissioner Kim McGuinness said in a statement released Tuesday.
The order forbids Neill from attending any regulated soccer
match in Britain and also prevents him from traveling abroad to watch
international friendlies, qualification matches and tournaments.
Brentford said the club hopes sentences for online abuse
increase and called on social media companies to remove all hateful content to
make their platforms safe for everyone.” -AP