Sunday was a dark day for Tottenham Hotspur.
Not only did they play abysmally against Chelsea in a derby that had an awful lot riding on it, but a section of their supporters disgraced them.
We have all seen the condemnation on social media of racist incidents in Italy and beyond, and during England internationals.
But here, on Sunday, there were three announcements about racist incidents after Antonio Rudiger, Chelsea’s excellent central defender, complained that he had heard monkey chants.
Cesar Azpilicueta, the club captain, reported the incident to referee Anthony Taylor, who sprinted over to the managers to inform them of the development.
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Three separate tannoy announcements warned fans that racist abuse was interfering with the game and reminded them that there is no place for such hateful prejudice in football. Spurs have confirmed since that there was one incident and that an investigation is being carried out.
Emotions, of course, run high during derby games. Tottenham and Chelsea have a long and storied rivalry and the two clubs absolutely do not like each other.
But to resort to racist abuse when losing is lower than low and Spurs must now help police identify the culprits and, hopefully, ban them for life.
Their performance on the pitch, really, is secondary to those events, to those stomach-churning announcements that remind us that we still have so far to go to eradicate racism from both football and our society.
Stormzy, the grime artist and rapper, was asked earlier this week if the UK was a racist country. He replied, per indy100: “Definitely, 100 percent. It’s like: ‘Oh no, we’re not racist’. But there’s a lot of racism in the country.”
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His quotes were subsequently taken out of context and peddled as though he had said that everyone in the country was racist, rather than a small sub-section. Predictably, it led to some hateful backlash.
Sunday was yet another example that he was right to say what he said.
We have a long way to go, and, in football, Tottenham have to lead the charge as they look to find the culprits and hand out bans.
Meanwhile, one man could end up at Spurs due to “fate”.