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Last night’s English Premier League opening day game between reigning champions Liverpool and Bournemouth was without drama and an unfortunate incident of racial abuse towards Ghana’s Antoine Semenyo.
The Black Stars forward had an impressive game, netting two goals to level the scores for the Cherries before two late goals from Federico Chiesa and Mohammed Salah saw Liverpool win 4-2.
However, before that, Semenyo was a subject of racial abuse in the first half. The Premier League has issued a statement condemning the incident, and Liverpool manager Arne Slot has also called it “unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, an eyewitness who was seated close to the incident has shared details of what transpired.
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Antoine Semenyo scores against Liverpool
READ ALSO: Semenyo makes history with brace against Liverpool despite alleged racial abuse
Here’s the full eyewitness account:
I’ll go into the details on tonight as I have hundreds of replies to my earlier post and there’s no point replying to them all. So this fella has had his season ticket for many years at Anfield. He’s passionate but often takes things way too far but it is what it is. He has crossed the line before by throwing stuff at officials (usually chewing gum) and stewards looked embarrassed rather than do anything.
So I guess that’s allowed his behaviour to escalate maybe in his brain. About 28 mins into the game, Semenyo goes to take a throw in. He’s not a player that goads the fans and seems like a decent lad. The sort of player that people want playing for their club.
For reasons I’ll never know, the fella near me in bay 7 (I’m bay 9) decides to go over to him in his wheelchair and shouts something at Semenyo. Semenyo then asks him to repeat it and he repeated it and threw his chewing gum at him.
Then 2 mins later the play is stopped. The fella next to me says he hopes Mark hasn’t said anything racist to Semenyo but then I’m getting texts from people saying it’s about the fan in the wheelchair allegedly abusing Semenyo.
He continues:
We missed the first goal because all of us were uncomfortable being around this guy, who’s now sat in silence, probably realising what he’s done and he’s soon to be in the shit. We didn’t want him near us and people (including myself) were calling him a racist prick. It was just uncomfortable to be around and we wanted him gone. The stewards didn’t have a clue what was going on either.
He was eventually removed from the ground at 21:01 by police. Firstly saying he’d refuse to move and wouldn’t leave but then agreeing to leave, then kicking off. I’d gone to the toilet by this point but saw him kicking off near the exit.
I believe there is some kind of protocol where the police have to remove them and not stewards and they have to get a sort of investigation going first. That’s why it took them 30 mins to get him out of the ground.
He then added:
So the club now have to help the police with an investigation and rightly so. If he’s found to have racially abused Semenyo, he needs to be banned for life. No excuses. Another fan chimed in saying “Semenyo didn’t look upset” so sorta sticking up for the abuser or playing devils advocate. But he just looked shocked to me, which is probably why he asked him to repeat himself.”
So props to Semenyo for having the brilliant game he had. All 3 goalscorers were black, which was quite fitting really. The irony is, the fella had a “no room for racism” badge on his shirt. I think at the time, it was annoying that we had to be around the prick but I think the club acted as fast as they could. I believe stewards can eject fans if they personally hear abuse but otherwise a report needs to be made for it to happen.
On the flip side of this, look at the amount of disability abuse there is in response to this. Discrimination is discrimination, so if you’re making your “edgy jokes” about disability on the back of it, you’re just as bad.
I’ve cropped his face out for obvious reasons but it’s incredibly ironic to have that badge on you and then do something like that. There’s obviously going to be a legal process ongoing now. The head steward asked us all a few questions and everyone was helpful.
Proud of the way the club acted in response to one prick. Anfield is a very welcoming place to people from all walks of life. Let’s keep it that way.
MUST READ: Mohammed Salah sets unprecedented Premier League record
Meanwhile, Semenyo made history with his brace yesterday, which took him fourth on Bournemouth’s all-time EPL top scorers list with 22 goals.