Premier League footballer Mason Holgate is facing a potential ban after authorities opened an investigation into his homophobic tweets.
The Everton defender called people “fag,” “faggotttttttttt,” “a batty” and “battyboy” in the posts, which were made in 2012 and 2013.
The Football Association will look into the tweets – which surfaced after the 21-year-old was involved in a fiery on-pitch coming-together with Liverpool striker Roberto Firmino on Friday – according to The Times.
Holgate deleted his Twitter account after the posts were revealed.
One of the offending tweets read: “faggottttttttt why?”
Another said: “No but your a glorysupporter and a battyboy!;-)”
A third read: “Fag! We’re of Saturday if your feeling it”.
And in yet another post, Holgate wrote: “he is a batty”.
The England under-21 international was 15 when he wrote the first two tweets, and 16 when he wrote the other two.
Another Premier League footballer, Andre Gray, was banned for four games in 2016 over tweets suggesting that gays should “burn” and “die”.
He wrote: “Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #MakesMeSick”
A string of celebrities were put in the public spotlight over past tweets last year, including pop star Ed Sheeran, who repeatedly tweeted that things and people were “no homo” or “so homo”.
Grime artist Stormzy apologised after a flood of tweets in which he repeatedly called people “a f***ing fag,” “faggot” and “gay” were discovered by PinkNews.
The two-time MOBO Award winner called his past comments “foul and offensive,” and spoke directly to the LGBT+ community when he offered his “deepest apologies”.
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!’s Amir Khan and Rebekah Vardy were hit with homophobia accusations, after YouTuber Jack Maynard exited the ITV reality show when his homophobic and racist tweets emerged.
The Labour Party suspended Jared O’Mara MP after he allegedly referred to gay people as “fudge packers” and “poofters”, also alluding to anal sex as “driving up the Marmite motorway”.
And famous YouTuber Zoella apologised for mocking gay and transgender people on Twitter.
The 27-year-old, who has more than 12 million subscribers, tweeted in 2010, when she was 20: “I find it funny when gay men spit…it’s like they’re trying to be a bit macho but never works…”.
And in 2011, writing to beauty YouTuber Tanya Burr, Zoella said: “are they honestly letting a tranny in a policeman hat speak to them like that? How odd! Haha x”.
The revelations came as a shock to supporters who have seen the star repeatedly speak out in favour of LGBT rights.
And Gay Times editor Josh Rivers was sacked after it was discovered that he had tweeted offensive comments.
Rivers insulted transgender people, lesbians, women in general, Jews, Asians, Africans, the homeless, anyone he thought was “fat” or a “retard” – and old people.
