According to The Guardian, The FA are prepared to defend Dele’s jocular one-finger salute to former Spurs team-mate Kyle Walker, which occurred during England’s 2-1 win over Slovakia on Monday.
Deep into the second half of the European Group F World Cup qualifying match between England and Slovakia at Wembley, Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli was caught by several different cameras making a rude gesture with his middle-finger.
Initial thoughts were that the 21 year old had directed the gesture at referee Clement Turpin, who had elected not to award the Englishman a free-kick when tackled by 32 year old defender Martin Skrtel.
However following the match, Dele announced on twitter that the incident was merely a light-hearted joke shared between himself and international team-mate Kyle Walker.
Recently, it had been reported by SkySports that in light of the incident FIFA were set to review match reports, which would open up the possibility of Dele being punished by the world footballing association.
According to a report from The Guardian, the youngster is set to be backed by the FA in the event of retrospective action.
The FA are reportedly prepared to provide extensive video evidence of the incident, which would apparently support the 21 year old’s claims that his gesture was not aimed at the French referee.
However, should FIFA decide that the joke still betrays footballing professionalism or the ‘spirit’ of the beautiful game, then the FA would be unable to prevent the midfielder from receiving a fine or a ban.
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