Aston Villa inclusion officer sorry for historic tweets
Villa’s equality, diversity and inclusion officer has been reprimanded by the FA over historic social media posts.
An investigation found Lucy Keeling sent tweets which could be construed as Islamophobic between 2012 and 2017.
Keeling, who took up the role as Villa’s EDI officer in 2019 having worked at the club’s charitable foundation for four years prior to that, has apologised unreservedly to the club and the FA.
She will remain in post despite the investigation’s findings but has been reminded of her responsibilities. Having previously displayed exemplary conduct, Villa are hoping she will learn lessons from the investigation.
An FA statement said: “The FA stands firmly against all forms of discrimination and one of our key strategic objectives is to use our influence to deliver a game free from discrimination.
“We are striving to ensure our sport is a safe environment for all, which truly embraces diversity and inclusion, and challenges hateful conduct both on and off the pitch.
“We take all allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and would urge anybody who has been subject to, or a witness of incidents of discrimination, to report it to the FA, their local county FA, or Kick It Out immediately so it can be investigated thoroughly.”
