Breaking News

Dundee Utd investigating alleged racial incident during Hibernian match

Dundee United have begun an investigation into alleged racist abuse directed towards a Hibernian player during their Scottish Premiership match on Tuesday night.

The Tannadice Park club say they are aware of footage which "appeared to transmit either racist or other derogatory language" during the second half of United's 1-0 win.

Hibernian added in a statement "the incident took place in the latter stages of the second half as the player went to retrieve the ball that had gone out of play" and say they will "strongly support any investigation into this matter".

Livingston assistant Marvin Bartley called for the Scottish FA and SPFL to take action before tweeting his support for Hibs midfielder Jair Tavares.

Bartley, who is the Scottish FA's equality and diversity advisor, hit out at the person responsible for the alleged comment.

He said: "I tried and tried to convince myself that I had misheard this but after listening multiple times I'm unfortunately right.

"To hear someone shout this and abuse someone for their skin colour breaks my heart. We're now at a point where either the authorities do something about it or they simply tell us they don't care.

"I wish I could explain the pain and heartache this sort of stuff causes but it's impossible to put into words.

"My heart genuinely goes out to Jair, all he was trying to do was his job and getting the ball to speed up play.

"There is no chance that the people around him didn't hear the s*****g who's shouted this.

"I hope the ones who did report it to the club but if they don't then the SFA and SPFL need to come down hard because this is as clear as it gets.

"We can't allow these people to ruin our beautiful game or ruin the reputation of a country I'm glad to call home.

"Nights like tonight are hard to deal with and I was only listening, it was aimed at Jair.

"If I can leave you with one thing if you still fail to get it. Look in the mirror and imagine the person looking back at you isn't accepted by some because of the colour of your skin! @ScottishFA @spfl over to you."

No comments