A video of a young man harassing North East United Football Club (NEUFC) female supporters during the side’s clash with Chennaiyin FC at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday has gone viral, prompting the city police to look for him and his friends.
The video shows the youth harassing a group of fans from the Northeastern States who had come to support their team. The clip also shows his friends encouraging him and other spectators remaining silent.
Reacting sharply to the incident, John Abraham, owner of NEUFC, said the club stands by its passionate supporters. “It is deeply disturbing to me when sports become an unsafe or unharmonious place for anyone.. Everything I have taken back from sport has been only positive from learning to take the loss with a sense of sportsmanship, winning with humility.”
Mr. Abraham said he commiserated with the harassed girl. “To the girl who was victimised by these insensitive and thoughtless people, we stand with you and you’ll never feel alone as you must have felt in that moment. I will personally meet you and make sure you are OK. To the fans who troubled you, I’ll call [them] fake fans because Abhishek [Bachchan], co-owner of Chennaiyin, or myself would never condone this behaviour.”
Chennaiyin in a statement said: “[It] has a very strict and firm policy against racism and any unbecoming behaviour in the stadium. The club strongly condemns any such act. We are looking into any such incidents and will take strong action against it.”
Meanwhile, S. Rajendran, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Kilpauk), said: “We are tracing the youngsters using the video and CCTV footage. We will take action based on them.”
