Despite their stoic reaction to Andre Gray's four match ban, Burnley have received from the English Football Association a serious setback in their fight to beat the drop from the Premier League.
Photo source: Burnley Football Club.
Watford, Arsenal, Southampton and Everton have all received an early but significantly huge bonus from the English Football Association.
By banning Andre Gray for four matches for off the field of play tweeting antics, the FA have effectively denied the player's parent club the opportunity to play on a level playing field in their next four Premier League games.
Burnley Football Club, a founder member of the Football League and widely regarded for it's sense of fair play and innovative thinking, provided the following statement on news of the Gray ban:
"We believe this charge, regarding historical social media posts, should now also serve as a warning to all professional footballers, and participants in the wider sporting field."
When considering dishing out this quite punitive sentence to Gray and his parent club, perhaps the English FA could have been a little more imaginative and creative in their punishment?
Burnley are an innovative, inspirational East Lancashire based football club and have instigated the "Burnley FC in the Community" scheme; an award-winning, official charity partly funded by Burnley Football Club.
Burnley FC in the Community believe in the immense power of their football club to help change local people’s lives for the better.
The dedicated support staff work hard every single day to deliver their goal to inspire, support and deliver change to people across the villages, hamlets and communities which surround Turf Moor.
The work of the Burnley FC in the Community is channelled into five key areas; sports, education, health, social inclusion and community facilities.
A highly-skilled, dynamic and passionate team delivers over 30 community projects that touch the lives of a huge spectrum of people in and around Burnley.
The scheme is both inclusive and laudable. It aims to help local children and young people, going right through to the social spectrum to enable senior citizens, the disabled and disadvantaged.
Andre Gray is by all accounts a victim of the environment and culture that surrounded him in his early formative years. Could he not have been given the task of dedicating a lot of his free time to helping this magnificent cause?
Instead of the usual unimaginative ban and hefty £25,000 fine, could and perhaps should the FA have integrated Gray's need for social enlightenment into Burnley Football Club's community programme?
Gray's comments have no place in a contemporary, enlightened society and it is hard to have any sympathy with his plight. Yet, Burnley Football Club have become victims of a punishment that has nothing to do with them.
The Premier League is now thrown out of kilter. Four teams will undeservedly benefit from Gray's off the field social media shenanigans from four years ago.
The Gray punishment will undoubtedly have ramifications in the final analysis when places in the Premier League are finalised.
Points gained and lost because of arbitrary and ill-conceived punishments have wider implications because the FA have simply gone for the easy option by demonstrating their zeal for political correctness.
Burnley Football Club may well be relegated from the Premier League as a direct consequence of a non-League player's Twitter account from four years ago.
Where is the justice in that? (TEC).