Skip to main contentAccess keys help

[an error occurred while processing this directive]
BBC News
watch One-Minute World News
Last Updated: Thursday, 17 July, 2003, 10:54 GMT 11:54 UK
Fan banned over racist singing
A football supporter who took part in a racist terrace chant has been banned from Premiership and Nationwide League grounds for three years.

Port Vale fan Sean Ratcliffe, 21, was convicted under the 1991 Football (Offences) Act in the High Court last month.

Ratcliffe - who took part in singing featuring the word "Paki" - had originally been cleared of any wrongdoing by Stoke-on-Trent Magistrates' Court, who dismissed the offending chant as "mere doggerel".

But two High Court judges last month ordered he be convicted and sent the matter back to magistrates for sentencing.

It is understood to be the first case of its kind to have reached the High Court.

On Thursday, Ratcliffe, from Cross Heath, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was fined �150 and ordered to pay �120 in costs.

Ratcliffe said outside the court: "There was no violence, it was nothing, it was just a song at the end of the day."


SEE ALSO:


RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites


PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia
UK | Business | Entertainment | Science/Nature | Technology | Health
Have Your Say | In Pictures | Week at a Glance | Country Profiles | In Depth | Programmes
AmericasAfricaEuropeMiddle EastSouth AsiaAsia Pacific