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".
Neville calls for players to walk off
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."
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