Colin Wing, one of the men that was caught on camera shouting abuse at Raheem Sterling in a Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, has denied that the remarks that he made towards the City winger were racial.
Sterling was shouted at by several Chelsea fans while retrieving a ball during the first-half of their 2-0 loss against the Blues last weekend.
https://twitter.com/TheManUtdWay/status/1071790111325675520
The England winger took to Instagram after the game to voice his frustrations at racial abuse and also how racism in football is being covered by the British media.
According to the
Daily Mail, Wing, 60, insists that he called Sterling a 'Manc c***' not a 'black c***', although the England international is understood to have told police he heard racist language.
Mr Wing told the Mail: ‘I’m deeply ashamed by my own behaviour and I feel really bad. But I didn’t call him a black c***, I called him a Manc c***.
‘I’ve been going to Chelsea for 50 years now and, because of where I sit, I’m picked up on the camera most weeks. If I had a history of saying this sort of thing I would’ve been caught by now'.
Chelsea and the Metropolitan Police are both investigating the incident while the Professional Footballers Association encouraged all clubs to take the strongest possible action for fans found guilty of racially abusing players.
The PFA issued a statement that said: "The PFA condemn, in the strongest terms, the increase in racial abuse our members have been receiving from the terraces. We encourage all clubs to take the strongest possible action for fans found guilty of racially abusing players.
"Over the past two weeks, we have seen two alleged high-profile racist incidents happen from the stands at Premier League games. We stress to all clubs the importance of dealing with these incidents robustly. It is not acceptable for our members to find themselves subject to racist abuse, simply for showing up to work and performing for their team.
"This weekend, following the video footage appearing to show a fan shouting racist abuse at Raheem Sterling, we have been in close contact with his agent, and extend our full support to Raheem.
"We commend Raheem for his professionalism during the incident and the statement he made via Instagram on Sunday.
"We stand with him in calling for the press to consider the coverage of all footballers carefully, and to end their imbalanced coverage aimed at young, black players.
"We have been aware for a few months of the targeting Raheem faces in the press, it is evident that he is often singled out and treated more harshly than his colleagues. As such, these stories are fuelling racism within the game, as reports of racist abuse continue to rise.
"In November, anti-discrimination charity - and PFA funded partner - Kick It Out released figures that showed reports of discriminatory abuse within football were up 11 per cent last season (2017/18), the sixth successive annual rise. Of the 520 reported incidents, 53 per cent were racism related - a 22 per cent increase from the previous season.
"While it may be true that no racial slurs have been used in the press coverage received by Raheem and others, we are in no doubt that the negative narrative influences public opinion and emboldens racist rhetoric."
https://twitter.com/MarvinNMorgan/status/1072223507180867585
Meanwhile former Premier League striker Dave Kitson, a columnist for The Sun, said on talkSPORT radio that players can make a target of themselves by posting images of their lifestyle across social media.
Kitson said: “You cannot condone this racism in any way shape or form, I think it’s disgusting.
“I do believe that players make themselves a target. Why Raheem Sterling? There are other black players on the pitch, every single week.
“I just think that we have a duty of care to ourselves as footballers, to be a little bit careful with social media, and the way we portray ourselves.
“Jealousy is an awful thing amongst the human race. I trawled through Raheem Sterling’s Instagram feed this morning to find that a lot of what he put on in his early days has now been deleted, and it was, ‘look at my cars, look at my house, look at this bathroom, look at this, look at that, look at me.’ And that’s going to antagonise people.
“Now that is no excuse whatsoever for racially abusing somebody, but you sow a seed amongst people who are not racist, not to like that particular person, because they don’t want to see that in their faces every day.
“Now, when you go onto Raheem Sterling’s Instagram it’s ‘here’s a goal I scored last week, here’s me in a kids hospital.’ So someone’s got hold of him and said, ‘look, you can’t do that anymore. But that seed has already been planted in people’s heads.”
Kitson was roundly condemned for his comments with former England rugby international Ugo Monye remarking that Kitson was speaking 'utter bollocks'.
https://twitter.com/ugomonye/status/1072389290691321856
