Mick Hartley

Blimey.

A female football fan was banned from matches over social media posts that were deemed transphobic after a “Stasi” spying investigation by the Premier League.

A special unit set up to root out racism in the game was used to comb through comments made by Linzi Smith, a gender-critical Newcastle United supporter, even though the posts had nothing to do with football. Gender-critical people believe transgender women are not women.

Gender critical women know that transgender women are not women. What distinguishes them is that they're not willing to be silent and go along with the charade.

Ms Smith, who is gay and promotes lesbian, gay and bisexual rights and women’s rights, was put under investigation by the police, the Premier League and Newcastle United after expressing strong views on trans ideology on her personal account on X, formerly Twitter.

The 34-year-old was shocked to discover that the Premier League had compiled a dossier detailing where she lives, works and where she walked her dog. The 11-page “target profile”, marked confidential, included data on “associated aliases” and “vulnerabilities”.

She was interviewed under caution by police after the dossier was handed to officers by Newcastle United. Officers took just two hours to inform her that she had not committed any crime, but the club, which had spent four months looking into her background, revoked her membership and banned her from games until 2026.

She is taking legal action in an attempt to overturn the ban, arguing that her right to exercise gender-critical views is protected in law, and that the Premier League’s trawl of her personal social media account constituted a breach of data protection laws….

The Premier League’s investigation unit, which does not have an official name, is part of its legal department and based at its headquarters in Paddington, west London. It was set up in 2019 to monitor abuse, in particular racist abuse, directed at players.

The Premier League had trawled through her social media posts to find her date of birth, where she lives, the area where she works, and discover that “they do appear to walk their dog by [XXXX] Church which is just off [the street where she lives].”

The intelligence was accompanied by a picture Ms Smith had posted on social media of her dog, Chester, which has since died, being walked near the church, and two screenshots of the church and its environs from Google Street View.

Chilling. No doubt Gary Lineker will be protesting this outrage, um, any minute now………..