December 9 – Police have arrested a man in connection with alleged racial gestures and chanting in Saturday’s Premier League derby between Manchester City and Manchester United.
Television images circulating on social media showed a City fan making a monkey gesture in front of United’s Brazilian midfielder Fred during the game, which the visitors won 2-1.
Fans also threw objects on to the field when Fred was taking a corner in front of them and he was struck at least once.
English football’s anti-racism body, Kick It Out, said it had been “inundated with reports of alleged racist abuse from a number of individuals” at the game,.
“Unfortunately, this is happening in some stadiums,” Fred told ESPN. “It happened here, it happened in Ukraine with some friends. It’s sad, but we have to keep our heads up and forget about that. We can’t give them any attention because that’s all they want. I spoke to the referee after the match, they will do something about it and that’s all.
“We are all the same regardless of skin colour, hair and gender. We came from the same place and we all go to the same place when it’s all said and done. Thank God I have a lot of friends here in the locker room who hugged me, like (Jesse) Lingard. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to move on.”
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could not disguise his anger.
“I hope City and the authorities will deal with it, because he shouldn’t be watching football again. Not live, anyway,” he said. “We have to stamp it out. We keep talking about it every single week and it’s not acceptable.”
City said it was working with police to identify any perpetrators of racist abuse.
“The club operates a zero tolerance policy regarding discrimination of any kind, and anyone found guilty of racial abuse will be banned from the club for life.”
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