Birmingham City midfielder Juninho Bacuna reported an alleged incident of racist abuse during his side’s 4-1 victory over Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night.
The alleged incident happened in the second half of the Championship fixture and Birmingham say Bacuna reported it to the referee, Sam Allison, during the game. Allison stopped the match to speak to Birmingham manager John Eustace and Huddersfield coach Darren Moore, before resuming play.
Birmingham owner Tom Wagner also issued a statement after the match, in which he said Huddersfield’s Tom Edwards confirmed that incident. Wagner added that Birmingham are “fully committed” to working with West Midlands Police to investigate and will impose a lifetime ban on any guilty party.
“I would like to express my gratitude to Juninho and Tom for promptly bringing this matter to the attention of the officials,” Wagner said. “It takes courage to speak up against such unacceptable behaviour.
“At the same time, I want to make it clear that we condemn any individual who believes that making racially motivated comments is acceptable. Such actions have no place in football or in society as a whole.”
Eustace also commented on the incident after the game saying: “It’s not something that we expect in society, let alone football. Birmingham is very proud of how diverse we are as a club and a city and there is certainly nowhere near any room for that at all.
“It’s very disappointing. They have reported it, it’s bang out of order.”
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The different faces of racism
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