Livescore
A 24-year-old man has been banned from attending football stadiums for three years after sending racially abusive social media messages to Brentford player Ivan Toney.
The offender, Antonio Neill, sent these messages to Toney on 14 October 2022 and they were shared by the player himself to highlight the situation many players face on social media on a daily basis.
Neill pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court and has received the three-year banning order, plus a four-month jail term which is suspended.
This means that he will not have to go to prison provided he doesn’t reoffend within a certain timeframe.
Brentford and Northumberland Police have described the sentence as “a benchmark in the law”.
For several years now, the Premier League, along with other English football bodies, has been trying to reduce the abuse of footballers on social media by contacting the different platforms to gain the requisite personal information to prosecute abusers.
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