Soccer hooligans banned from attending matches over racist abuse
Four Chelsea fans that were caught chanting racist slogans while pushing a black commuter from a Paris metro train have been banned from football matches.
The four men were who boasting: “We’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we like it” during the incident leading up to a football match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain last February have been described as “abhorrent, nasty, offensive, arrogant and utterly unacceptable” by the district judge, Gareth Branson.
Mobile footage which later went viral showed the victim, Souleymane Sylla as he was violently pushed off the carriage while trying to board at the Richelieu-Drouot station in the French capital.
All four men denied racist behavior but were handed out bans from games. Richard Barklie, 50, from Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, Joshua Parsons, 20, from Dorking, Surrey, and William Simpson, 26, from Ashford, Surrey, were banned from matches for the maximum period allowed – five years. Jordan Munday, 20, from south-east London, was banned for three years.
One of the men, Barklie is believed to be a former police officer and is currently a director with the World Human Rights Forum. However, the judge said he had “demonstrated aggressive disorderly conduct”
He added: “His behavior at football matches has not matched the picture of him away from the game.”
Barklie had denied racist chanting said Sylla was pushed off due to the amount of people on the carriage.
The incident which caught attention on a global scale took place ahead of a 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain during the UEFA Champions League.
A group of 150 “intimidating” Chelsea supporters who had been partaking in heavy drinking prior to the game was described as “massive and very loud. It was tribal. It was strewn across the road, halting traffic”.
The banning orders were issued under section 14B of the Football Spectators Act 1989.
Branson said: “The behavior of the mob on that Paris Métro train, at the forefront of which were Barklie and Parsons, has been seen across this country and beyond. It was a racist incident. Sylla says that reference was made to the color of his skin; though that has not been tested in evidence, in any event, the manner in which the group then demonstrated its support for racism is unmistakable. The incident has further damaged the already tarnished image of British football in Europe.”
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