Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Liverpool 'must take a stand' over abuse

European anti-racism chief calls on club to 'undo damage' as police arrest fan over Cup allegation

Marc Padgett
Sunday 08 January 2012 01:00 GMT
Comments
Oldham defender Tom Adeyemi reacts to alleged abuse
Oldham defender Tom Adeyemi reacts to alleged abuse

The head of European football's anti-racism group, Piara Powar, believes Liverpool should have been more proactive over the latest issue to affect the club.

The club and Merseyside Police have launched investigations after Oldham's 20-year-old defender Tom Adeyemi was allegedly abused by someone in the Kop during the FA Cup third-round tie on Friday.

The suggestion is the comments were of a racial nature. It comes as Liverpool deal with the fall-out from Luis Suarez's eight-match ban for racial abuse of Manchester United's Patrice Evra. Powar, the executive director of European football's anti-discrimination body FARE, said: "The obvious thing for LFC must be to come out as a club – owner, manager, captain – and start to undo some of the damage, including addressing their fans.

"Go on to the LFC website and there is not a single expression of regret about what happened," he added. "Are LFC fans going to do this at every game, support the mistakes made by their own man by abusing others? Top clubs have unprecedented influence and power over millions of people. They should exercise that power responsibly. If they don't, it's time for the authorities to step in."

A 20-year-old man from Aintree in Merseyside was arrested last night on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence in connection with the Cup tie. Liverpool issued a statement saying they "continue to work closely with Merseyside Police to establish all the facts surrounding the incident".

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in