I agree with you.

Over reaction was the term.

How does a retrospective fine of 40k for fans chanting, which with the best will in the world can't be changed post event, suddenly enable them to turn back the clock?

A fine is not the answer. Criticise the club in the mass media by all means with as much vitriol as necessary. To dish out a fine is a complete over reaction for many of the reasons identified by other posters in this thread.

As I pointed out, the pious repost from the RFL is more to do with their funding streams than their upset via proxy on behalf of Stonewall or Gareth Thomas.

Disagree, the club could have controlled the fans, stewards and tannoy systems could have been used to give annoucements out

however dont you think the rfls fine also takes into account the disgusting scenes at the end of the Catalan home game last season?

I've rarely, if ever, seen an effective steward at a sports event where there have been firey issues. Why would they for £20 a day? In the same context, would said muppets listen to a tannoy announcement? Again, unlikely.

As for the Catalans game, most likely. In which case the RFL should have had the gumption to "call in" the debt and outline that accumulated behaviour is the actual reason behind the decision.

Is the behaviour of Tigers fans any worse than other SL clubs? Having visited them all, I would suggest not. What is clear is that the club won't put up any kind of resistance for fear of rebuking the license next year. Nice to see the governing body are able to effectively do as they please with the member clubs based on said fear.

the same way every club is punished every week for throwing abuse at players for anything, just because the player is gay why should he be exempt. Players were abused for race and nothing happened and players get called Paedo, Fat, W@nker. F****r every game and nothings happens.

I want to know if there had been an announcement would it have been ok and deemed dealt with? As im sure the stewards wouldnt have been able to shut up the 100's of fans doin it.

Massive over reaction by the RFL but then again they cant do anything right. I feel its their way of ousting Cas.

Isn't it up to the club to control its fans?

The tannoys were used to drowned out two of the 3 chants.

How can you control them all? Its not a prison, if they all decide to do something it gets done, no matter what the club does. When we go to Saints both sets of fans give the players loads and NOTHING is ever done, but neither club got a £40k fine.

Im not saying its right, but a level playing field would be nice, something the RFL never play on.

Whilst I am totally against discrimination of any kind, I am left wondering on one thing. The week after the game Gareth Thomas was involved in an inside sport programme where he talked about homophobia in sport and highlighted us, no doubt his was paid a nice tidy sum for this interview there was also his article from a column he writes in the press. After this article and interview were broadcast there have been no other mentions about the abuse this player has had to put up with at various games, which leaves me with the question why has only one club been singled out, am I being cynical and saying that money is the motivation behind this???? Why haven't other clubs been highlighted in the media etc.

Anyway to those idiots who deceided to once again put our club in a bad light I hope you have learned your lesson and if you can't keep your opinions to yourselves then for god sake stay away from our club, and if you have any sence of guilt I suggest that as you walk into the ground you go into the office and make a large donation to the club!

Well you know what to chant at him next time don't you "You straight barsteward, You straight barsteward"

Let's face it the big shock about this is the punishment which the RFL have deemed reasonable to issue. Personally I think that a £40K fine is well OTT, and could have been avoided!!

If senior executives of CAS...RW and other cronies had personally contacted GT to appologise, followed up by a written letter from the board of Directors and the Chairman of the supporters clubs stating an appology on behalf of the club. That would have been a good start on behalf of the club.

The club should then using any camera's at the ground, identify those who were doing the chanting, report them to the Police and press charges against them. Following which they should be named and shamed and publically banned from our ground. Details of our actions taken, and the identities of these fans should then be handed over to the RFL, and the RFL should then ban them from all rugby grounds (don't ask me how they would enforce all this!!).

GT should then be contacted once again by RW, to again appologise and to report how seriously we have taken this issue and the action that our club has instigated in response to this unacceptable behaviour and that we will be vigilant in trying to prevent occuring again in outr game.

......If we had been pro-active in managing this situation we could have a) Dealt with it in such a manner that could have avoided it leading to a potential fine....and b) Turned this into a very positive situation for the future of the club, about how we will not tollerate this type of behaviour.

Once again RW and others at the club have absolutely no idea about running a business!! What a joke!!!

Maybe he felt this was the worst abuse he'e suffered? I'm sure that Thomas has no personal agenda against Cas, why would he? I imagine that, for whatever reason, he felt that the abuse he suffered at Cas was worse than anywhere else. There are a variety of reasons why that might have been, not least that maybe the abuse levelled at him at Cas was worse than anywhere else.

This is a large fine no doubt, and it might create some future problems for Cas but in terms of staying in SL, you probably have bigger problems.

I welcome yesterday's announcement, the protection of our LGBT players and support is important. Remembering that there will be a number of LGBT fans in any given crowd, and it is the ones shouting homophobic abuse that should be unwelcome at our grounds rather than any LGBT fans.

Hopefully now clubs will know that this type of thing will not be tolerated by the RFL and act on it when it arises and not when forced to after the fact.

Sexuality essentially boils down to which orifices you choose to stick your reproductive organ into. Race is pretty much down to where your dad was when he made his choice. So one's a conscious personal choice, the other isn't.

And no, I'm not saying that berating or deriding others for the personal choices they make is a particularly attractive trait of humanity, but it IS a part of all of us. For the most part, people seem to accept that and develop the strength of character to rise above such remarks. "Sticks and stones may break my bones..." etc.

As has been pointed out by many, many others on this thread, people who choose to put down others because they're perceived to be 'not of a certain norm' - be that race, gender preference, hair colour, physique, whatever - are by no means exclusive to Castleford. It goes on at every Rugby ground (both codes) and at every other event drawing a large enough crowd too.

But it seems to me that focusing on the issue of 'whether calling someone a puff is right or wrong' is sidestepping the real debate. Is a £40k fine on the club fair and proportionate for what occurred, based on the measures the club could have taken to prevent it? I would suggest it ISN'T fair and proportionate. I would suggest that the club did all it could have been reasonably expected to do. And I can only conclude that someone somewhere is deliberately using this incident to try and undermine my Rugby club.

One is how someone looks, one is how they act.

EDIT: Or what Disco said...