Castleford's £40,000 fine is slashed

The West Yorkshire club was found guilty of misconduct during the Engage Super League fixture against Crusaders RL at The Jungle on March 26.

An RFL operational tribunal in June also ordered Castleford to forfeit the 20,000 suspended from a 40,000 fine imposed in September 2009 for conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game and misconduct after plastic bottles were thrown on to the pitch and match officials were abused and harassed at the conclusion of a home match against Catalans Dragons in June that year.

However, at an appeals hearing this week, the 40,000 fine for misconduct relating to the homophobic chanting was reduced to 20,000.

The tribunal also ruled that the 20,000 suspended last year should remain suspended until the end of the 2012 season.

The ruling was made after Castleford were able to demonstrate that since the initial hearing four months ago they had taken steps which led to the identification and banning of some of the supporters responsible for the homophobic chanting and, also, in recognition of the improvements made to the match day safety operation by them during the 2010 season.