LONDON- Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger says “racism has won” and that he had been made a “scapegoat” after Tottenham Hotspur and London police said they found no evidence to back his allegation he was abused during a Premier League match in December.
Rudiger was involved in an incident in which Tottenham’s South Korea international Son Heung-min was shown a red card and indicated shortly afterwards that he had been the victim of a monkey gesture from the home section of the crowd.
However, Spurs and the Metropolitan Police said they had found no evidence of racial abuse at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“Racism has won. The offenders can always come back to the stadium, which shows these people have won,” Sky Sports quoted Rudiger as saying after Chelsea beat Spurs 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.
Rudiger was subjected to jeers from some Tottenham fans during Saturday’s match at Stamford Bridge.
“They never get punished and in the end I’m the scapegoat. I won’t give up, I’ll never stop raising my voice. I’ll always raise my voice, but in relation to this, I’m alone,” he said.
“It’s a disaster. I became a father last Thursday and you start thinking society hasn’t come far enough in fighting racism so my kids will probably suffer as well. If nothing changes, if kids don’t get good education and parenting, we’ll lose.”
In a statement released on Monday, Spurs supported the course of action taken by Rudiger and said they would be willing to re-open the investigation if new evidence comes to light.
“The club should like to reiterate that we fully support the action that Antonio Rudiger took in this situation and we would encourage any player to do the same if they too are faced with this scenario in the future,” Tottenham said in a statement.
“An exhaustive investigation was undertaken with the Metropolitan Police at the time following the player’s allegation and we remain open to revisiting this should any new information come to light.”
(Content and photos syndicated via Reuters)
