In a 2-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger was allegedly subjected to racial abuse by a couple of the home supporters. Rudiger was involved in an altercation with Spurs forward Heung-Min Son that resulted in the Spurs attacker getting sent off.
After the incident he was victimized by the home crowd, subjected to monkey noises. He then motioned to the officials what he saw and heard, using hand and arm gestures to convey what had happened. Have a look at the video below:
Rudiger appearing to highlight racist abuse from Tottenham fans after the Son sending off pic.twitter.com/fxBCCScPFp
— Tom Burrows (@TBurrows16) December 22, 2019
It’s really depressing how common this has become in football today, and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping any time soon. It feels like every couple of weeks we’re having the same discussions on this topic, and it’s clear that stronger action is going to be required in order to try and curb this deplorable behavior.
Rudiger expressed on Twitter today his thoughts and feelings on what happened yesterday.
“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),” he tweeted in the first of a four part series.
“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
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). (1/4)
— Antonio Rüdiger (@ToniRuediger) December 22, 2019
“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 punish them,”
“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?”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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