Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger indicated that he heard monkey chants in the second half of Chelsea's 2-0 win against Spurs Sunday. He told club captain Cesar Azpilicueta, who then alerted referee Anthony Taylor.
Three announcements warning fans against racist behavior were made before the end of the match.
Tottenham later issued a statement saying it was investigating the incident, saying "racism is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our stadium."
Nigel Adams, the sports minister, said he would raise the incident with club officials. "Depressing to see (Sunday's) events at White Hart Lane," Adams tweeted. "I welcome Spurs investigation and will be speaking with the club's directors (Monday). There is no place for racism or any kind of discrimination in football or anywhere else."
The Professional Footballers' Association threw its support behind Rudiger and called for a government inquiry "into racism and the rise in hate crime within football and immediate and urgent action from an All-Party Group at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to address this urgent issue."
Rudiger calls for offenders to be punished
Rudiger, a German international, urged people to discuss the issue of racism in soccer. "If not, it will be forgotten again in a couple of days (as always)," he said on Twitter.
"I don't want to involve Tottenham as an entire club into this situation as I know that just a couple of idiots were the offenders," he added in a series of tweets. "I got a lot of supportive messages on social media from Spurs fans as well in the last hours -- thank you a lot for this."
"I really hope that the offenders will be found and punished soon, and in such a modern football ground like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with dozens of TV and security cameras, it must be possible to find and subsequently punish them."
"If not, then there must have been witnesses in the stadium who saw and heard the incident. It's just such a shame that racism still exists in 2019. When will this nonsense stop?"
The Premier League, the world's most-watched soccer league, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho is likely to be asked about the issue again in a press conference Monday, a pre-scheduled briefing ahead of his team's game against Brighton at home on Thursday.
Post match Sunday, the Portuguese said: "I hate racism in society, hate racism in football. I am disappointed that things like that still can happen."
There have been a series of racist incidents in the Premier League recently. In early December, a 41-year-old man was arrested and bailed after allegedly racially abusing Manchester United's Brazilian midfielder Fred and English attacker Jesse Lingard. On the same weekend a 13-year-old Burnley supporter was thrown out of Tottenham's stadium for an alleged racist gesture aimed at South Korea international Son Heung-Min. Police launched an investigation.
Incidents have also been widespread across Europe in league games and European championship qualifying. Last week, an Italian football anti-racism initiative featuring paintings of monkeys received widespread criticism, prompting Serie A to apologize.
Former England defender Gary Neville, now a pundit on Sky Sports, accused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of fueling racism in the aftermath of the incident in the Manchester derby and took aim at political parties again Sunday.
It may be time for players to walk off the pitch when racist incidents occur, he said. "Maybe we have to empower the players to walk off the pitch and stop the entertainment while it is happening," Neville said on Sky.
2019-12-23 10:57:28Z
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/23/football/rudiger-tottenham-chelsea-football-racism-intl-spt/index.html
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