Chelsea have condemned racist abuse following the suspension of their UEFA Youth League fixture against Qarabag in Baku, amid allegations of racial abuse targeting the Blues’ Under-19s squad. Members of Chelsea’s academy were visibly distressed following an incident involving spectators, prompting the referee to halt proceedings in the capital of Azerbaijan.
The young Blues were ahead 1-0, through Sol Gordon’s effort, when play was stopped. Gordon and his colleagues had been celebrating close to a small group of Qarabag ultras when the confrontation occurred. Witnesses present at the match report seeing and hearing monkey gestures and sounds, according to Football.London.
Chelsea released a statement saying: “We are aware of an incident during today’s UEFA Youth League match in Azerbaijan in which, after scoring, a number of our players were subjected to racist abuse from an individual in the crowd.
“Racism and all forms of discriminatory behaviour are completely unacceptable and have no place in football or indeed in society. We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible.
“Our players have the full support of everyone at the club, and we have raised the incident immediately with the UEFA match delegate and home club: We expect this matter to be investigated fully under UEFA’s disciplinary procedures.
“We are proud of the way our players and staff responded to the incident on the pitch, swiftly reporting it to the referee, and commend those for dealing with the matter professionally and appropriately in line with UEFA protocols.
“Chelsea Football Club is immensely proud of the diversity within our team and across our entire club and will continue to work with UEFA to ensure that those responsible for discriminatory behaviour in football are held accountable.”
Qarabag issued their own statement saying: “We are sorry about this incident. It does not represent the values of our club and we will investigate thoroughly.”
Following a short interruption, the match continued and Chelsea secured a commanding 5-0 victory with Jesse Derry netting twice and Shim Mheuka and Frankie Runham each adding a goal.
