Friday, March 29, 2024

Club statement: Racists are not welcome at Arsenal

Arsenal have condemned the use of racist language, apparently from a Arsenal fan, which has been circulating on social media this morning.

The person in question uses the unpleasant epithet towards Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly in a video he’s filming from inside the Emirates Stadium. It’s not directed in such a way that the Senegal international can hear it, but that it was considered appropriate for publication online means recriminations will follow.

It is just one idiot, but the club have rightly and immediately made it clear that they will enforce a zero tolerance approach to any kind of racism.

In a statement to Sky News they say:

“We utterly condemn use of this type of racist language and have launched an investigation to identify the culprit.

“We operate a zero tolerance approach, and anyone behaving like this is not welcome at Arsenal and will be banned from matches.

“We have an extremely diverse community of fans who are all part of the Arsenal family and such incidents are rare at Emirates Stadium.

“We encourage supporters to report any incidents as they happen to stewards or via our matchday alert service.”

Let’s be very clear about this: Under no circumstances should any kind of discriminatory behaviour be tolerated inside or outside football grounds, and we all have a responsibility to ensure that when it does occur, those responsible are taken to task.

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gooner

Does that mean we’ll be playing Chelsea without their fans?

Zenithreptile

Erm, I think that one of the points of the article is that this is prevalent in ALL clubs, including our own.

I heard someone hissing at the end of ‘We hate Tottenham’ a few years back and didn’t say say anything, but the guy next to me called him out on it and I felt embarrassed I hadn’t said anything. No one else said a thing about it, but the bloke whi=o intervened is fucking awesome in my book.

Giroulski

Imagine knowing history well enough to make the sounds and still making the sounds.

suki singh

The guy’s a complete and utter c*unt. I hope they find him and ban him for life.

Evaristus

Sorry, I don’t get what the hissing sound meant.

Lettra

Neither did I ..
I think it’s like a Gas sound and a reference to the camp showers.

Not sure but probably that.

David Maynard

Its supposed to be the sound from when jews were gassed during world war 2. Its Ridiculous

MeSoHornsey

I’m guessing it’s got something to do with gas chambers which would be utterly diabolical.

BennisBergkamp

Your guess is, sadly, correct.

Gordy

All the people who come out with the “Yiddo” crap should be called out. We have as many Jewish supporters as those other North London people, how do you think it makes them feel hearing that over and over again?

kleinmeister

The ‘yid’ word thing is pretty ridiculous. If the Spuds fans regardless of their religious upbringing can use it then so can other supporters of other teams. Or else stop it’s use entirely so that there is no debate to be had about it.

Michael Bolton Wanderers

This was news to me, that people use hissing noise as a reference to the holocaust. That’s really pathetic

Tas_Gunner

Wow.That’s radical ?

Kiwamya

Good luck banning everyone who makes the gas chamber noise at the end of the ‘what do you think of shit’ chant.

Giroulski

We used to do that??? Some of us still do?! Fucking shameful.

Lettra

Oh I’m a furriner .. I honestly didn’t know it was a thing.

David C

Wow, I only get to follow the team through television and I had no idea this is a thing! That’s really shameful and pathetic.

C.B.

There is no place for racism and it is amazing to me that given the heroes that Arsenal have had (Wright, Vieira, Henry etc etc) that anyone could still be racist nowadays.

However if we ban them then isn’t that discriminatory against total idiots?

VagabondPuppet

It’s pretty much ok to discriminate against racists.

onenil

It is not discrimination against idiots. It is punishing vile w@nkers for their vicious behaviour, which brings shame on our club.

beef

Look it’s not the role of the football club to re-educate these people. It’s to provide a nice environment for the rest of us to enjoy watching football. Racism fucks that up, ergo boot the racists.

renaissancerosicky

Dropping Mustafi is (necessary) discrimination against idiocy. This isn’t 😉

Doghouse

think it was A idiot recording himself, these types of games are a lot easier to get tickets and i would be very surprised if this moron is a season ticket holder or counts himself as a Arsenal supporter, as I haven’t seen footage and it’s obviously out there I’m sure like the idiots who run on to pitch will be named and shamed. I’ve always been proud my club has a big mix of cultures all together supporting my team from my 1st days in the late 70s on the North Bank asking my dad what sort of ciggerettes… Read more »

Thesoulofpdavis

I think its important to remember that this club does not have the same problems seen elsewhere. Yes, there are the odd individuals who chat nonsense often brought on by stupidity. But lets not destroy ourselves over the fact that some people are just idiots who will say anything to goad, harass, and annoy. To be clear, its not as simple as “everyones a racist”. Its more to do with the fact that the world over there are “mean” people and if it isnt a racist trope being used they will say other equally egregious thinks for effect ( to… Read more »

Thesoulofpdavis

Also just to add, the news reporters should make it clear that this isnt an instance of “some random racist white guy”. Clearly he isnt white. It only matters because I dont want anybody else who supports the club who happens to be a minority to assume that theres a large swathe of white racists at Arsenal when considering the demographics of the fanbase. Nobody needs to feel intimidated over lazy reporting.

marc

Its still a worry and disappointing that at our club people feel its ok to come out with such shit and we cannot be complacent. Overt racism hasn’t been a major issue at either Highbury or Emirates for as far back as I can remember (1980s onwards) but there is a new climate emboldening some and we fans have to act. Report it, confront it but lets not let it get hold at our club.

Thesoulofpdavis

In no way am I defending this fool, but it is clear that amongst some individuals in London as a whole who are of Asian or Arab appearance have been using the N word for quite long without realising the gravity of such a word. This is obviously from my personal experience and not an assumption that all people who fit this description do such things. But it is important because there are foolish people who use the word in everyday slang language. The root is way more entrenched than we are led to believe.

Wenger out - ahh, darn too late

I had the pleasure of listing to an idiot calling Eleneny a f*****g c*** for the entire duration of the time that he came on as a sub. Admittedly not racist, just moronic.

Richie

This appears to be a problem that is escalating quicker amongst London clubs. Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham, and Millwall have all had several racism related incidents this season.

Thesoulofpdavis

we are not in the same ball park of any of these clubs. Its rare at The Arsenal. Doesnt mate it any better, but please, there is no real escalation. Smart phones, TV cameras and better reporting make dying attitudes seem much larger than they actually are. Its Clickbait. But again, I insist, we are not anything like others. Even Spuds are not nearly as bad as the others.

kaius

You’ve made some really great points above, but you’re on very slippery ground here. We know Arsenal are ahead of the game but that’s not the point Richie is making.

Overall, the problem of open racism among London clubs *is* escalating. If anything past incidents of racism were underreported, so there is no factual basis for you to say “racial attitudes are dying out”.

Many minorities will tell you that in fact, the opposite is true.

HAI

This is simply not true – in fact our racist chanting, sadly, is more ingrained, although admittedly perhaps less ‘violent’, than many other clubs’. At the end of EVERY ‘we hate Tottenham’ song, the word y*d is used freely, and never called out for what it is – racism. Until we confront this problem endemic in so much Arsenal chanting and stop deluding ourselves that we’re ‘better than the rest’ we’ll have no hope of tackling the problems inside our own building.

ChrisC

There needs to be some debate about Spurs fans calling themselves the”Yid Army”. It done by, I suspect, a largely non-Jewish contingent of Spurs supporters to provoke other club’s supporters, into appearing to be anti-semitic, when in fact they are just being anti-Spurs. Until Spurs fans stop using the epithet, other fans will use it back. It is as offensive when Spurs fans use the word and when anyone else does.
However, the hissing is a shamefully brainless Pavlovian reaction to the chant and should rightly be condemned.

Jack4343

Twats gonna twat. Ban the dumbass and move on.

George

Pretty much.

Lula

I knew a kid at School that swore he wasn’t a racist but would use racist slurs when he felt he was being treated unfairly. Like it was game when he was being provoked. Lots of fans use this excuse when they racially abuse the player. That frame of mind was clearly stupid when I was in school. That people still seem to be of that mindset decades later is frankly pathetic. We need to call it out when we see it. Not just in the stadium as well. It takes courage but we really need to reject racism and… Read more »

Mohamed

Never imagined My club, known for inclusion, diversity and class would have an idiotic racist amongst its supporters. Sad

George

If you think there is/was only one, then you’re incredibly naive. And they’re not all white either.

Inge

Koulibaly is exactly the player Arsenal needs, a big strong defender, who has got pace.

renaissancerosicky

Just watched the video. Saw that the abuser is South Asian. There is a serious racism issue within the South Asian community that’s severely under discussed. (I say this as part of it and probably part of the problem)

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