Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli given one-match ban for post mocking coronavirus

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London, June 11: Tottenham and England midfielder Dele Alli has been handed a one-match ban for a racially insensitive social media post, the Football Association (FA) has announced. Alli was charged by the FA in February over a Snapchat post that showed him in an airport mocking an Asian man in reference to coronavirus.

The video showed Alli wearing a protective facemask in an airport and was entitled, "Corona whattt, please listen with volume". It cut to the gentleman, who appeared to be unaware he was being filmed, before panning to a bottle of antiseptic handwash.

Underneath, a caption read: "This virus gunna have to be quicker than that to catch me."

The 24-year-old deleted the video and posted an apology to the Chinese social media network Weibo.

He denied his initial post was in breach of FA regulations but he will now be absent when Tottenham resume their Premier League campaign at home to Manchester United next week.

Alli must also pay a £50,000 fine and undertake an education course after the governing body found his actions to be "insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute" under FA Rule E3 (1).

It additionally constituted an "aggravated breach" in line with the second subsection of that rule, because "It included a reference, whether express or implied, to race and/or colour and /or ethnic origin and/or nationality".