Fan incident during Oldham game

[BJC]

@MerseyPolice
A 20 year old Aintree man has been arrested tonight on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence following Friday's game.

[wavydavy]

Disappointed.Very young.Had hoped it would be one of my lot if anyone.Uneducated middle aged knobhead type.

[Liverpool]

anyone got a pic of the 3 lads in jester hats, how old were they?

[sean_lfc]

[Gibbo]

Bloke on ITV was trying to blame it on the club and players, tbf Ince didn't say much

[Chazza]

Paul Ince saying that although he didn't agree with the Suarez T shirts he knows that Liverpool fans are good people and this is an isolated incident

Gordon Strachen saying that its not a fan its a moron and will still be a moron when they leave the ground

[Fivex]

I've never minded Strachan

[Craig_H]

John Barnes....

John Barnes spoke out in defence of Liverpool Football Club on Saturday, telling ESPN that the Merseyside club are no more racist than any other in the country.

Liverpool have seen their reputation damaged by the drawn-out Luis Suarez saga, which has seen the Reds defend their player despite a guilty verdict of racial abuse delivered by the FA. Kenny Dalglish and his men have been extremely public in their defence of the Uruguayan, wearing t-shirts to show support, which has drawn widespread criticism.

Compounding the issue is an incident that took place during their FA Cup third round win against Oldham, when Tom Adeyemi was reduced to tears by an alleged moment of racist abuse from a section of the Anfield crowd. A police investigation will now be launched, and while Barnes believes there will prove to have been a racial element to the incident, he insists racism is not only Liverpool's problem.

"I have no doubt that somebody hurled racist abuse at him, and it really hasn't come at a good time for Liverpool. However, I'm not naive enough to think incidents like this don't happen at pitches across the country every Saturday," Barnes told ESPN.

"I for one never believed that racism ever went away. I wouldn't say it happens at Liverpool more than anywhere else. The fact that he heard it means there is an investigation and Liverpool will co-operate fully."

Liverpool confirmed in a statement on Saturday that they will aid the police probe, saying on their official website: "Liverpool Football Club continue to work closely with Merseyside Police to establish all the facts surrounding the incident that occurred during last night's game.

"We take this matter extremely seriously and have today provided the police with the evidence we currently have available to us. This includes CCTV coverage and still photography of what we believe to be the relevant part of the stadium, statements from matchday stewards in that area and full access to all the footage captured by the cameras filming the match for our in-house TV operation."

The general consensus, certainly in parts of the British media, appears to be that Liverpool have failed to react in the right manner by defending Suarez following his clash with Patrice Evra. However, Barnes does not believe his former club have done anything wrong.

"Unfortunately for Liverpool, the perception is that Liverpool are being soft on racism. That is far from the reality," Barnes said. "If you want to talk about the Luis Suarez incident, the perception is that because Liverpool didn't castigate him, they are condoning it. The reality is they firmly believe Suarez is innocent, so while they don't accept the punishment, they don't agree with the verdict.

"They think the verdict was flawed, and they are backing Luis Suarez 100 per cent. Suarez himself feels he's done nothing wrong, in terms of the word he said, he also says there are things he didn't say, the claim that he does not talk to black people he says he 100% did not say.

"Liverpool have to be seen to be backing him if they believe that is the case."

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport...ml?CMP=OTC-RSS

[Neil Young]

Ok I didn't realise that, I only noticed it after the Flanagan foul.

I don't know how many people were booing or where they were in the ground. I would imagine though that the majority of people in the ground (who were booing) didn't know what had gone on, presumably they just saw his reaction which would have looked like him giving grief/stick/whatever to the crowd. It obviously looks bad when you know what has allegedly happened, I think that if the crowd had known what had (allegedly) happened I don't think there would have been the same reaction.

Fair point, it's hard to know how much people might have known at the time, or what they could have guessed had happened. Whatever, it was an unsavoury incident and if it emerges that it was racial abuse and no-one reported it at the time, then it won't look very good.

Got it in one.

He is now El Rabyeosa.

Haha nice one, Reece.

Good work, BE.

[Muddled]

Bloke on ITV was trying to blame it on the club and players, tbf Ince didn't say much

After the ITV bloke turned to Paul Ince and said

"you're uniquely positioned to [long pause] pass judgement on this because [pause] you've played for both and Liverpool and Man Utd".

[Craig_H]

Lads, what programme was Paul Ince on, with ITV? I just watched ITV News (on ITV +1) and the report was very short, and didnt include Ince or Strachan.

[Scratch]

Fa cup highlights program.

[Craig_H]

Fa cup highlights program.

Ah nice, i'm recording that, thanks

I thought it was ITV News

[cannotmakeit]

Police investigating an incident of alleged racist abuse by fans at Anfield towards Oldham Athletic defender Tom Adeyemi have arrested a man.

An investigation was launched after Friday night's Liverpool v Oldham FA Cup third-round game.

Merseyside Police said a 20-year-old man from Aintree, Merseyside, was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

The man is being held in custody and being interviewed by detectives.

The game was stopped briefly while Adeyemi - on loan from Norwich - alerted referee Neil Swarbrick to the incident.

On Saturday evening, Liverpool issued a statement, saying: "Liverpool Football Club continue to work closely with Merseyside Police to establish all the facts surrounding the incident that occurred during last night's game.

"We take this matter extremely seriously and have today provided the police with the evidence we currently have available to us."

The incident compounds a difficult few weeks for Liverpool, who were without Luis Suarez for the match against the Oldham as the striker serves an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra at Anfield in October.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...yside-16458267

[wavydavy]

What's the score with this lad? Have they got to charge him today or let him go?