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UPDATE: police hunting down gang of Chelsea FC fan bigots

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This past week, a black man now identified as Souleymane S, was abused by Chelsea Football Club supporters at a Paris metro station before a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain. A small group of Chelsea FC supporters prohibited Souleymane from entering a Paris subway train and then sang “we’re racist and that’s the way we like it.” Video of this incident went viral).
Now police are hunting down the men  involving in the incident. Officials have released photos of the gang:

UPDATE: (Daily Mail, see the images of the three men in question here)

Five people have so far been suspended from the club’s Stamford Bridge ground following investigations into what happened and face lifetime bans if they’re found guilty of any offence.

Images have been released in a bid to identify the trio, who the Met think were among a group of Chelsea supporters involved in the incident while on their way to the Champions League last-16 clash.

UPDATE: Chelsea fan Josh Parsons has been suspended from his City job after being caught on camera with a group of racist Chelsea fans. There is no suggestion that finance worker Mr Parsons was involved in the racist chants or pushing the black man.

However, he has now been suspended from his job at Business and Commercial Finance Club, a firm based in Mayfair, London, pending an internal investigation.

Richard Barklie – a former Northern Ireland police officer – is now part of the investigation. Barklie has denied taking part in any racist chanting but admitted to being involved in the incident. Barklie’s legal team said they have contacted the London police, who are working in conjunction with Paris police. Barklie, a season ticket holder at Stamford Bridge, does not know any of the other people shown in the Paris video, solicitor Kevin Winters said.
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   “He did not participate in racist chanting and singing and condemns any behavior supporting that,” Winters said. “He accepts he was involved in an incident when a person now known to him as Souleymane S was unable to enter a part of the train.
   “He has an account to give to police which will explain the context and circumstances as they prevailed at that particular time. In the meantime pending that, he wants to put on record his sincerest apologies for the trauma and stress suffered by Mr. Souleymane.”
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Barklie is a director with the World Human Rights Forum, a global organization with offices in Northern Ireland.
“Pending formal engagement with police, our client is anxious to put on record his total abhorrence for racism and any activity associated with it,” Winters said. “As someone who has spent years working with disadvantaged communities in Africa and India he can point to a CV in human rights work which undermines any suggestion he is racist.”
Chelsea Football Club said and did all the right things in relation this incident during their match on Saturday.
“We feel very sorry about it,” Mourinho said at Chelsea’s training ground. “We want to fight it. We feel ashamed and we want to apologize to the gentleman.”

Earlier this week, Chelsea invited Souleymane to their London stadium for the return leg. Chelsea FC also released this statement (in which they plan to bar three people from the stadium).

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 “I felt ashamed when I found out but these supporters do not represent the club,” said Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho Friday.

Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive. You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone.

Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)