Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has called on authorities to find the supporters that racially abused him at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and hopes that the public conversation about racism in football will remain in people’s minds.
The German international was allegedly targeted with derogatory chants from fans in the Blues’ 2-1 victory over Tottenham on Sunday, after being involved in an incident that saw Son Heung-min shown a red card.
Rudiger informed match officials of the alleged racial abuse and there were several announcements made over the public announcement speaker at the stadium for supporters to regulate their behavior.
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In the hours after the match, the- 26-year-old used his Twitter account to continue the conversation about racism in football, insisting that he hopes the perpetrators are found and punished for their actions.
“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),” Rudiger tweeted in a thread.
“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 subsequently 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?”
Rudiger also used his Twitter account immediately post-match to send a message to the offending fans, celebrating the victory against Spurs with the hashtags, ‘#NoToRacism #PleaseGetSomeBasicEducation’
Chelsea solidified fourth position on the Premier League table with the result and now lead fifth-placed Sheffield United by four points.
