Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has claimed that he has been made a scapegoat and insisted that racism has won after he was reportedly booed by a section of Spurs fans at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Allegations were made after Tottenham’s 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in December that some supporters from the Tottenham end made racist gestures towards Rudiger (Daily Mail).
The Blues star took to social media after the game to reveal that he had heard racist chants and hoped that the perpetrators would be suitably dealt with.
However, Tottenham confirmed last month that the investigation into the incident had proved inconclusive after the club and the Metropolitan Police had exhausted all avenues.
After being on the receiving end of some jeers from Spurs supporters on Saturday, the German international revealed that he felt let down.
Speaking after Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Spurs, the defender told Sky Sports: “Racism has won. The offenders can always come back to the stadium, which shows that these people have won.
“It doesn’t have to be me, it can be anyone else. They never get punished and in the end, I am the scapegoat.
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“I won’t give up, I’ll never stop raising my voice. I’ll always raise my voice, but in relation to this, I am alone.
“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 young kids don’t get good education and parenting, we will lose. We have to be this honest.”
In response to the centre back’s statement, a Tottenham correspondent reportedly said: “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.
“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.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Tottenham have handled the situation as well as they could have given that they haven’t come across any evidence of racist chants or gestures from the game a couple of months ago. Just because evidence hasn’t emerged so far didn’t mean that it didn’t happen. The club must fully support Rudiger and be willing to restart the investigation if some new evidence arises.
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