Two men have been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault following the abandoned tie between Haringey Borough and Yeovil Town.
The men aged 23 and 26 were detained early Monday morning and are currently in police custody.
The match was abandoned in the 64th minute after the Cameroon born goalkeeper Valery Douglas Pajetat was reportedly spat at and hit by an object. Minute’s later defender Coby Rowe was then racially abused. The police are investigating both incidents.
This coincides with the weekend the Premier League ran their No Room for Racism campaign. Its also just four days after England’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria was halted twice as fans were warned about racist behaviour, including Nazi salutes and monkey chanting.
Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings who was the target of the vile abuse in Sofia, took to Twitter after the game crediting the manager and players decision to walk off the pitch.
The manager of the home side Tom Loizou told BBC Somerset after the game “”It’s very distressing, the abuse a few of my players got was disgusting. Yeovil’s players and manager were different class. Their team tried to calm their supporters down, they tried their best and they supported us – they said ‘if you’re walking off we’re walking off with you.”
The FA who are also looking into the incident released a statement after the game saying, “There is no room for discrimination in our game. and we are working with the match officials and the relevant authorities, as a matter of urgency, to fully establish the facts and take the appropriate steps.”
The FA are now left to the hard decision of whether to have the match replayed or give Yeovil the win as the home team walked off the pitch.
David Kemp Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
