Piara Powar, executive director of the Football Against Racism in Europe network, says the FA should view incidents in isolation, rather than looking at motivations.
"We find the FA tribunal often comes out after a sanction and making the judgment that they did not think the individual was racist," he said. "The individual was not being tried for that offence so it is puzzling why they have to make that comment and think they can really understand and represent an individual's motivation.
"That is an area of bad practice the FA needs to address because who are you to judge someone's motivation. Your role is to look at the particular offence and make a judgment on that."
Alli's case included a character reference from Spurs team-mate Kyle Walker-Peters - who is currently on loan at Southampton - insisting the 24-year-old was not racist. At the time China had an outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, even though the disease had not been declared a pandemic.
In his evidence, Dele revealed he was teased for overreacting to the threat of the virus as he prepared to travel from Heathrow on Feb 6, as he had travelled with a mask and hand gel.
"I would like to apologise again for any offence caused by my behaviour," said Dele. "It was an extremely poorly judged joke about a virus that has now affected us more than we could ever have imagined.
"I'm grateful that The FA has confirmed that my actions were not racist because I despise racism of any kind. We all need to be mindful of the words and actions we use and how they can be perceived by others."
Mourinho backed his player at the time of the charge, insisted "the last thing that Dele is, is anything connected with racism or disrespect". The Spurs boss will now prepare for the United game without his midfielder but will have him back for the midweek clash against West Ham.
Both parties raised Bernardo Silva's one-match ban for a Tweet comparing team-mate Benjamin Mendy to a chocolate sweet. Dele's legal representative, Jim Sturman QC, argued his client's post was "not published on a widely viewed Twitter account".
Last month Alli was robbed in his north London home by intruders and suffered injuries to his face during the ordeal. He was in his home in the north London suburb of Barnet, with his girlfriend Ruby Mae, his brother Harry Hickford; Hickford's partner and another friend.
