Chelsea fans are again the center of another racism scandal, following allegations from witnesses who described that fans of the football club intimidated and hurled racist comments to passengers on a train.
The fans were returning from Wembley where Chelsea won the League Cup on Sunday against London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
According to the BBC , the British Transport Police said that they were called to the train , which was traveling from London on Sunday night, as it entered Stoke station.
Police officers are currently examining footages of the alleged incident, which was obtained from an eyewitness on the train.
A spokesman of the British Transport Police said that the investigation is ongoing and that the police have spoken to two witnesses.
“Shortly after 22:30 GMT, officers were called to meet a London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly train at Stoke, following reports of racist and abusive behavior by a number of passengers, said to be football fans.”
Witnesses told The Guardian that the chants ranged from innocent banter to hurling racial abuse to passengers on the train.
A witness said that, “They were chanting and singing from the moment they sat down, for the majority of their journey”.
“It was obvious they were Chelsea fans – they were chanting at times about John Terry, Gianfranco Zola, disparaging other London clubs, how they’d won the cup on Sunday and chanting about Tottenham. The chants ranged from innocuous (drinking beer and not wanting to return to work on Monday) to sexist, to outright racist (I’d rather be a P*** than a grass), in particular directed towards someone who I can only assume contacted the train manager in relation to the rowdy behavior of the fans.”
Another witness, who choose to remain anonymous, said, “I wasn’t in the carriage for very long as I moved about 15-20 minutes into the journey, but just before the train set off a young girl asked them to be quiet and was confronted by a man who wasn’t very pleasant to her and pressed his finger against her face”.
“Then she pushed his hand away and he dropped his drink and continued shouting in her face and demanded she buy him another drink. His friends were chanting his name as this was happening and then the girl began to cry but he carried on and then she left the train.”
Chelsea were embroiled in a similar incident in Paris after fans returning from a clash in the UEFA Champions League against Paris Saint Germain. Fans of the London club were videoed chanting “We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it” before a man allegedly a fans of Chelsea, pushed a black man off the subway.
Afterwards, The Chelsea fans countered that the they had to remove the man because the subway was full and that they were chanting in support of their captain, John Terry, who had been banned and fined by The Football Association for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand in 2012.
A Chelsea spokesman said, “We are aware of the reports but it is not clear at this time if this incident involves Chelsea supporters. If it did then we will assist the British Transport police with their inquiries.”
(Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
