Gray charged by FA over homophobic tweets

The Football Association has charged Burnley striker Andre Gray with misconduct after homophobic posts from his Twitter account were widely circulated.

The tweets, posted in 2012 and shared across social media last weekend after he scored in Burnley’s surprise 2-0 Premier League win over Liverpool, included the remark: “Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #Makesmesick”.

Gray issued an apology in which he claimed he was now a “wholly different person” and did “not hold the beliefs written in those tweets whatsoever”.

But the FA has nonetheless issued a charge of misconduct as a result of the comments, which it deemed to be “abusive and/or insulting” and included an “aggravating factor” relating to sexual orientation.

“Burnley’s Andre Gray has been charged with misconduct in respect of social media comments made between January 9 2012 and March 11 2012,” the FA said in a statement.

“It is alleged the comments were abusive and/or insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute contrary to FA Rule E3(1).

“It is further alleged that these breaches include reference to an “aggravating factor”, namely, sexual orientation and/or gender and/or colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3(2).

“The player has until 6pm on Wednesday August 31 2016 to respond to the charge.”