Celtic player posts anti-racism video following alleged racist incident on pitch

The Scottish Sun newspaper reported on how a football player for Celtic, Moussa Dembele, has hit back against the racist abuse he got from a fan from an opposing team during a match against Rangers at the Ibrox stadium in Glasgow last week. Footage appeared online of an alleged racist slur shouted by a Rangers fan at Dembele during a game on 31 December.

The male spectator is alleged to have shouted “you black b*****d” at the 20-year-old striker as he scored an equalising goal against Rangers. Celtic went on to win the match 2-1. Another football fan captured the footage and posted it online, causing it to go viral.

Mr Dembele, who is a Muslim of Malian descent, went on to Twitter after the match and posted a 30-second clip that showed high-profile football stars such as Lionel Messi, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo declaring their support for Uefa’s ‘No to Racism’ campaign. Many people tweeted their support for the young footballer, voicing their disgust at the alleged racist outburst. Some of the tweets included sympathetic messages such as “racism is criminal” and “don’t let the minority get to you.” Some fans also insisted that Scotland wasn’t a racist place and that abusive fans were little more than “scum.” 

Racism is frequently thought to be on the rise in football, both from fans and players, with the anti-racism charity Kick it Out reporting a 21% increase in racist incidents in football at all levels of the game in September 2015.

However, there have been notable recent attempts by football supporters to counter this. They include Chelsea supporters in 2015 holding up a banner in a match against Burnley in February 2015, which showed the slogan “Black or white, we’re all blue.”

Another Chelsea fan started an anti-racism campaign on Facebook in 2015 in response to the racial abuse heaped on a black French man by English Chelsea fans as he attempted to board the Paris metro.