Gillingham fan arrested and banned for life after racist gesture to rival player
A Gillingham fan has been given an immediate lifetime ban from the club and arrested by Kent Police for racially abusing Newport County star Omar Bogle. The striker had just given Newport a 2-0 lead before going over to celebrate in front of one of the stands.
A fan was seen rushing towards the hoardings to antagonise Bogle and made a monkey gesture in the direction of the 30-year-old. The incident was caught on film and soon went viral on social media with one clip being watched more than two million times.
Gillingham Director of Operations, Joe Comper, condemned the acts of the man and issued him with a lifetime ban from the club. He said on the club’s website: “One thing that people will see today from the way that we have responded, is that our stance is zero tolerance. We are absolutely disgusted, and we are frustrated if I’m honest.
“We have dealt with it within 30 seconds, the person involved was taken and arrested by the Police. Statements have been taken throughout the game and we have actually spent a lot of time dealing with that incident throughout the game to make sure that the person gets dealt with, and dealt with appropriately, that will now be handled by the Police.
“I think it is quite clear – everyone has seen the video and everyone can see what has happened. But it’s important that we, as a club, show that we take it very seriously. We dealt with it very quickly and the person was dealt with. One thing that I want to make a point of saying, and I think this is important to note, we put out a statement last week asking for fans to come forward and help us deal with these problems.
“The response from the majority of the Gillingham fans has been outstanding today, really outstanding. Whilst I’ve seen a few people state online that they are ’embarrassed to be a Gillingham fan’. I understand that because of that one person but let me tell you, the number of people in this stadium, and there has been people on all three sides by the way, have come up to me.
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“We have actually been struggling to deal with the number of people who are trying to tell us what happened, and that makes me proud. That makes me proud to be a Gillingham fan because the club is frustrated and are sick of it, and actually so are the majority of the fan base that are here. They don’t want to see it, they understand the repercussions it can have on the club. The majority of people here are as desperate to stamp it out as we are.
“So that actually makes me proud and I am thankful to the fan base. That was the main reason I wanted to come on and make that point. Yes, it’s not a great look for the club, I’m not happy about it and I do not want these incidents to happen. But actually, most of the people here, related to Gillingham Football Club, don’t either. That was shown today and that’s helped us take action, so I’m thankful to the fans.”
Kent Police confirmed the man was in his 20s and had been arrested on ‘suspicion of a racially-aggravated public order offence’.
Newport also condemned the racist gesture aimed at Bogle with a statement which read: “Newport County is extremely disappointed with the racist gesture made to striker Omar Bogle by a Gillingham supporter during today’s League Two fixture at Priestfield Stadium. Newport County abhors any forms of racism, prejudice or discrimination and has a zero-tolerance policy towards incidence of such nature.”
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