Met Police working with Tottenham after Chelsea defender suffers alleged racist abuse, PFA calls for government probe; Neville wants players to walk off
Tuesday 24 December 2019 00:01, UK
Antonio Rudiger has spoken out publicly after suffering alleged racist abuse during Chelsea's win over Tottenham and demanded to know "when will this nonsense stop?"
An investigation into the incident has begun with the Met Police working with Tottenham in an attempt to identify any people responsible, while the FA are also involved.
The Chelsea defender was seen around the 63rd minute indicating he had faced racist abuse, imitating a monkey gesture, and it led to the Premier League's anti-discrimination protocol being used for the first time.
In a series of tweets on Sunday night, the Chelsea defender posted: 'It is really sad to see racism again at a football match, but I think it's very important to talk about it in public. If not, it will be forgotten again in a couple of days (as always).
'I don't want to involve Tottenham as an entire club into this situation as I know that just a couple of idiots were the offenders. I got a lot of supportive messages on social media from Spurs fans as well in the last hours - thank you a lot for this. (2/4)
'I really hope that the offenders will be found and punished soon, and in such a modern football ground like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with dozens of TV and security cameras, it must be possible to find and subsequently punish them. (3/4)
'If not, then there must have been witnesses in the stadium who saw and heard the incident. It's just such a shame that racism still exists in 2019. When will this nonsense stop?'
Sports minister Nigel Adams is set to speak to Tottenham directors on Monday, with the MP calling the events at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium "depressing".
Spurs released a statement on Sunday night which read: "Any form of racism is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our stadium.
"We take any such allegations extremely seriously and shall take the strongest possible action against any individual found to be behaving in such a way, including stadium bans."
The Professional Footballers' Association has called for "a government inquiry into racism and the rise in hate crime within football and immediate".
Speaking on Sky Sports after Sunday's game, Gary Neville spoke out passionately about the incident and the response required.
"We have a racism problem in the Premier League in England," said Neville.
"The Premier League have got to stand up. They hide behind the FA on this issue. They hide behind the FA, in my opinion. They push disciplinary issues onto the FA.
"I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we have just had an election in this country where both main parties and the leaders of both main parties are accused constantly over the last month of fuelling racism and accepting racism within their parties.
"If it is accepted at the highest office in the country, we are not talking about it at a micro level we are talking about it at an absolutely enormous level, the highest office in the country.
"We have seen an issue today that we might say is down to one particular person but it is a far bigger issue than that and there has to be something that happens quickly.
"We maybe have to empower the players to walk off the pitch and stop the entertainment while it's happening because that's the only way I can see it changing."
