Castleford Tigers are confident there will be no repeat of the homophobic chanting when Gareth Thomas returns to the PROBIZ Stadium on Sunday. The Tigers were handed a £40,000 fine, later reduced to £20,000 on appeal, for a breach of the Rugby Football League’s Respect policy after a section of their fans abused the openly-gay Thomas on his second appearance for Crusaders RL 12 months ago.
Castleford chief executive Richard Wright says the club have put measures in place to ensure there will be no repeat. They include an extra response team briefed to eject fans demonstrating inappropriate behaviour, a poster campaign promoting the RFL’s Respect values and the installation of CCTV cameras.
“We’ve invited the RFL’s equality and diversity officer as guest of honour for Sunday’s game and we are very proud of the fantastic progress made in introducing new initiatives, some of which are firsts for rugby league and sport in general,” said Wright. “We know that it was a small number of mindless fools that let the club, the town and the sport of rugby league down last year and we have taken steps to deal with these. Anybody found guilty of homophobic abuse has, and will be, banned from games indefinitely."
"Sunday is an opportunity for the fans to make a statement that Castleford Tigers are not a homophobic club. The club has played its part, it’s now up to the fans to concentrate on cheering the team and proving once and for all how this is a proud club, that warrants its reputation as one of the friendliest, family-orientated clubs in the game.”
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