‘Rudiger may have been mistaken’ – Journalist questions whether racism occurred at Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea came head to head in North London just before Christmas, on what turned out to be a very eventful affair.

Chelsea won the game 2-0, but that was overshadowed both by Heung Min Son’s red card for violent conduct and the alleged racism towards Antonio Rudiger from Spurs fans that followed.

Rudiger indicated that he had been subjected to racist abuse from members of the home crowd, at which point that game was stopped and a stadium announcement was made.

However, Ian Ladyman of the Daily Mail now questions whether the racism actually occurred and whether the country reacted in the correct way.

Ladyman claims that we must now consider that Rudiger was mistaken in his claims, as Tottenham have found no evidence so far in their investigation.

He also questions whether the pundits on Match of the Day, or Gary Neville with his rant on Sky Sports, were a little premature, as we did not yet have conclusive facts.

Ladyman wrote: ‘But we do now have to consider that Rudiger may have been mistaken in what he thought he heard. And, as a consequence, we must have a look at ourselves and how quickly once again the modern world rushed to judgment.

‘We couldn’t get through Match of the Day last Sunday without hearing the Professional Footballers’ Association call for a government inquiry. No thanks. On Sky, meanwhile, Gary Neville took aim at our politicians.

‘What nobody wanted to do was wait and see if Rudiger was actually right.’

Spurs Web Opinion:

I would argue that whether or not the racism occurred at Tottenham is pretty irrelevant. The country-wide reaction was not to that one isolated incident, but what we thought was the latest in a long chain. Even if there was no racism that day from Spurs fans, few can argue that it does not happen throughout the country, and is a huge problem that plagues our game.

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