Middlesbrough of England’s Nigerian-born youngster, Marc Joel Bola has been charged for an ‘aggravated offence’ he allegedly committed nine years ago on social media, megasportsarena.com reports.
At a point the former would have thought the issues is dead and buried, his past has seemingly caught up with him, as officials of England’s Football Association have dug up the history books to slam him hard.
It is another blow for Bola, who progressed through Arsenal’s academy and had loan spells at Notts County and Bristol Rovers before completing a permanent move to Blackpool in the summer of 2018.
He has featured in all five of Boro’s English Championship matches this season, making four starts under Neil Warnock with the former club of Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Victor Anichebe, Sammy Ameobi, Kenneth Omeruo and John Mikel Obi.
Born in London Borough of Greenwich, Bola, who is of joint-Nigeria-Congo descent, joined Arsenal Academy when he was 13 after being spotted playing Sunday league football and at 16, he earned a scholarship.
After progressing through the ranks, he was promoted to the reserve side, where he became a regular there and scored his first goal for the reserve side on 9 March 2016, in a 3–3 draw against Fulham U23.
Bola turned professional with Arsenal in April 2016, after which he moved on loan to Notts County in January 2017 and got his debut on February 4, 2017.
His debut was 53 minutes of action in a 2–0 loss against Accrington Stanley, following which he went on to make 13 appearances for the side before returning to his parent club at the end of the season.
Bola joined Middlesbrough on July 28, 2019 and scored on his debut in an EFL Cup tie against Crewe Alexandra on August 13, 2019.
On January 10, 2020 he returned to Blackpool on loan until the end of the 2019–20 season but he is now back at Boro, only to get the FA hammer handed him at The Riverside.
The report out of Queensland disclosed that the 23-year-old left-back has been charged with aggravated misconduct for comments he made on social media nine years ago and he is alleged by the Football Association to have posted a reference to sexual orientation in 2012.
An FA statement read: “Middlesbrough FC’s Marc Bola has been charged with a misconduct for a breach of FA Rule E3 in relation to a social media post on April 14, 2012.
“It is alleged that this post is insulting and/or abusive and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute contrary to FA Rule E3.1.
“It is further alleged that this post constitutes an aggravated breach, which is defined in FA Rule E3.2, as it included a reference to sexual orientation. The defender has until September 20, 2021 to provide his response to this charge.”
