The Tottenham and England star quickly apologised and deleted the video, saying he “let himself and the club down,” but that has not prevented the authorities from writing to him to ask for his observations on the incident.
In the video Alli posted, he was wearing a face mask in an airport departure lounge on Saturday, accompanied by the message: “Corona whattt, please listen with volume.”
The camera then zoomed in on an unsuspecting man of Asian appearance before panning to a bottle of antiseptic hand-wash.
His post was captioned: “This virus gunna have to be quicker than that to catch me.”
Alli was at the airport on his way to Dubai during the club’s winter break and apologised as soon as he received complaints.
However, the FA are keen to clamp down on the abuse of social media and have a whole raft of measures that they can use against Alli.
In November, Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva was banned for one-game ban and fined £50,000 after his tweet about team-mate Benjamin Mendy was deemed to be discriminatory.
Silva’s tweet was deemed both to have brought the game into disrepute and also displayed “aggravating factors” as it included as it included reference, whether expressed or implied, to race and/or colour and/or ethnic origin.”
Alli’s punishment is likely to hinge on whether the FA decide after his observations that there was a racial element to his post – even an inadvertent one.
Tottenham have so far backed the player, pointing out the speed of his action in deleting the post and making a full and abject apology.
“Dele has recognised he made a grave error of judgement and has issued two separate apologies,” a spokesperson said.
