The PA was put when this happened.

I'm sorry, but if I as a wet liberal can see that this fine is absolutely ridiculous then surely everybody else can?

Homophobia is wrong, no doubt, but chants directed to weak spots of visiting players is one of the realities of sport. Abusive chanting happens at 100% of games in most team sports, but the RFL have clearly reacted because of who the player is, the interest in him from the national press and arguably because of the club who can be blamed. I have little doubt that if it happened at Leeds, Bradford, Saints, Wigan, Hull FC, KR, Huddersfield, Harlequins, Catalans or Warrington, nothing would have been said. As it happened at one of the clubs up for the chop next year - Cas, Wakefield or Salford - it was both easy and convinient for the RFL to put a black mark against that club. It's just a shame that Gareth Thomas played at Cas before either of the other clubs, otherwise it would have been them in the dock.

I'm 100% behind the club in its appeal. They played the RFL's Respect message over the tannoy to drown out the chants, and play it at every game. As has been mentioned before, without individually gagging fans before a game, there's nothing else the club could have done.

A warning letter I would accept, the club admitted what happened and took steps to stop it. A £40k fine is absolutely disgraceful, and I look forward to every Super League club receiving equal punishment whenever an opposition player or official is abused in the coming weeks (should be 7 fines next week then).

It wont happen, it's only cas they (RFL) are after.
Cant you see it, it's so obvious.

Agreed.

I agree there should have been a fine at the club but think that ammount is ridiculous just wondering what has been the outcome of the st's wigan game where a steward got his jaw broke or the hull vs rhinos game where bottles were thrown ect, This is what annoys me most we seem to always be highlighted but no other teams are. I also think (this is not an excuse) that due to the very poor efforts from our bod ect that the frustration has boiled over now to the pitch and people are venting there anger at the players and officials ect. I also dont think the club do enough to promote a good atmosphere at the ground now and really need changing and some people with fresh ideas brought in to change things or i really fear for our club.

Several issues are raised here. I agree with action and indeed with setting examples as I cringed with shame when it happened. What worries me is consistency.

1 What if the club does everything possible yet issues still arise? Some clubs will suffer more due to local demography and social status locally. Do you up ticket prices to keep out undesirables? Clearly not as its hardly an inclusive sport then.
2 Is the RFL going to be consistent with such matters of crowd abuse? They have opened a can of worms here over what should be fined and what shouldnt.
3 Do they really feel that a liscense application should be affected by the actions of what is probably no more than 40 people.

Well done you idiots, the club has been fined about £1000 for each one of you. It think the RFL are right, but they have to get other decisions right around it.

So you wouldnt have a problem if the R.F.L had fined us instead of you? Hypocrite! For what its worth i think the fines excessive and unjust but you cant say you werent warned.I also didnt hear any homophobic chanting at Belle Vue when we played crusaders.I hope you have some success with the appeal as you can afford the fine about as much as we can!

And who was in charge of crowd control and security on that day? That's right, Castleford Tigers RLFC and our stewards? You want us fined for that as well, to show balance???

Not having a go but you should have done that straight after the game and the board should have acted,then the fine,if any would have been smaller.
Same happened after the bottle throwing incident,the Cas board didnt move trees to ban the "fans".
Oh and for all the Cas fans thinking he got chanted at at HKR this year,he didnt,Rayner got all the stick that day with him being due in court for sentancing the day after.

What a load of round spherical objects this fine is, I hope Castleford drag the RFL through the courts to get this sorted once and for all. They can show that chanting against referee's parentage or their alleged use of 5 fingers has and is going on and that to alienate Castleford is beyond reason and fairness, abuse is abuse no matter who it is aimed, What will the RFL do the next live game when the Ref gets it.... Nothing wait and see,

Not being a Cas fan it's easy to say the fine is OK as I deplore any type of personalised chanting at opposition players. However I think the RFL have merely made an example of Cas and that is wrong as all cases should be dealt with equally.

I remember the saints fans chanting " what the f@£$ is that" all the way through the NZ hake a few years ago, how many times have we heard fans chanting " you fat b@£$%@£" at opposition props.

If you watch the programme "sports last taboo" which featured GT then you will see the American basketball player saying that you shouldn't try to separate banter from abuse because banter to one man is interpreted as abuse by another.

I have met GT and he is indeed a great bloke who any of us would gladly have a pint with and he certainly doesn't deserve any abuse purely because of his sexuality. the thing is that most (99%) of the Cas fans will think the same and every club has a small 1% of "fans" that are bigoted, homophobic morons who are only happy when they are abusing someone else to try and make up for their own inadequacies.

I hope cas are successful in their appeal as it's one of the friendliest clubs I have visited as an away fan in over 30 years of following my team.

Where did I say that?