Dele Alli is hoping to avoid a ban from the Football Association for his video mocking the coronavirus outbreak because it was not shared on a public forum.

The Tottenham midfielder was on Wednesday hit with a misconduct charge for an aggravated breach of FA Rule E3 but he is considering an appeal, which would allow him to make his case at a personal hearing.

Alli believes his case is different to that of Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva — who was fined £50,000 and banned for one match in November for a tweet about team-mate Benjamin Mendy — because he posted the video to a private Snapchat group, rather than on a public forum.

The video was copied and sold to a national newspaper, with Alli said to be unsure who was behind the leak.

In a statement on Silva’s ruling, the FA pointed out the Portuguese’s tweet “was not a private communication between two friends [but a] post...on a social media platform exposed to the 600,000 followers”, which would appear to support Alli’s defence.

Alli, 23, who has twice apologised for his post — including in a video sent to Chinese social media site Weibo — believes the FA should acknowledge the video’s initial audience when deciding a punishment.

Alli also apologised straight away, where as Silva later tweeted: “Can’t even joke with a friend these days... You guys...”.

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Alli has until next Thursday to appeal the charge, after which an FA commission has 10 working days to decide the case’s outcome.

The video showed Alli wearing a face mask in an airport departure lounge ahead of a trip to Dubai during Tottenham’s winter-break, accompanied by the message: “Corona whattt, please listen with volume.”