19 July 2023 , 12:50
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The FA have dropped investigations into Manchester United, Manchester City and also Nottingham Forest after incidents involving homophobic chanting by fans of all three clubs.
The succession of incidents happened in January, with Forest fans heard singing the 'Rent Boy' chant towards Chelsea on New Year's Day. On January 6, United supporters were heard aiming the chant towards Frank Lampard during an FA Cup clash against Everton, before City fans sung it in a clash against Chelsea in the same competition the following day.
The chant has been classified as a homophobic hate crime by the Crown Prosecution Service since January 2022, as first revealed by Mirror Football. After the three incidents of the chant being sung in January, the FA launched investigations into all three clubs involved.
Now though, Mirror Football can exclusively reveal that all three of those investigations have been quietly dropped, "without further action", less than a week after Wolves were hit with a landmark six-figure fine by the FA.
The FA have cited this is because all three incidents took place before the governing body changed their guidance on the rent boy chant. On 11 January, the organisation wrote to clubs throughout English football to inform them formal disciplinary action would be taken against any team whose fans sung the chant.
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That followed confirmation that a Liverpool fan had been successfully prosecuted for singing the chant at last year's FA Cup final, as exclusively revealed by Mirror Football. The FA claim that prosecution was crucial to their change in guidance.
The letter read: "We have formally written to all clubs across the Premier League, EFL, National League, Women’s Super League, Women’s Championship and Steps 2-4, to remind them that it can pursue formal disciplinary action against any club whose supporters engage in discriminatory behaviour, now including the use of the term ‘Rent Boy’.
Fans of United were heard singing the homophobic 'Chelsea rent boy' chant during a game against Everton in January"The FA has now informed all clubs that it considers the ‘Rent Boy’ chant to be a breach of the FA Rules. These rules apply to the conduct of supporters at both home and away fixtures, and clubs at all levels of English football have a responsibility to ensure their spectators behave appropriately when attending matches.
"We take all allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and would encourage anybody who has been subject to, or a witness of incidents of discrimination, to report it to the FA, the club or the relevant authorities so it can be investigated thoroughly."
In response to the news of the investigations being dropped, campaign group FootballvHomophobia have again urged clubs to take homophobia within the game seriously.
The group said in a statement to Mirror Football: “As we at FvH outlined in our statement last week following the outcome of the case involving Wolves, we would encourage all clubs to recognise and appreciate the value of anticipating scenarios, disseminating effective internal and external pre-match communications, putting in place structured matchday protocols, and implementing targeted ED&I strategies.”
The news that the investigations into United, City and Forest have been dropped comes after Wolves were fined £100,000 and placed into an action plan after being found guilty by an FA disciplinary panel of not doing enough to prevent their fans from singing the rent boy chant.
A Wolves fan was fined and issued with a stadium banning order and singing the chant against Chelsea in April. After an FA investigation, the Midlands side were charged with failing to ensure their fans conduct themselves in an orderly fashion.