Sports Briefs
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FIVE Chelsea fans have been banned from all football matches for up to five years over an incident of racism in Paris in February, this year. Four of the fans are to stay away from attending football matches anywhere in the world for five years, while the fifth person was given three years ban. The men were found guilty of refusing to allow a black man on to the Paris Metro line.
Richard Barklie, 50, from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland; and Joshua Parsons, 20, and William Simpson, 26, both from Surrey, were banned for five years while Jordan Munday, 20, from Sidcup in Kent, was banned for three years. A fifth fan in the same case, Dean Callis, 32, has already received a five-year banning order for his role.
District Judge Gareth Branston of Stratford magistrates’ court in east London, who handed down the verdict, said: “This was an abhorrent, nasty, offensive, arrogant and utterly unacceptable behaviour and cannot be allowed in modern, civilised society. It must be stamped out.” The judge said the racist hatred displayed by the accused on the night had “tarnished the reputation of English football in Europe.”
Branston said Barklie and Parsons, a former finance worker, had played a leading role in the racist abuse and in pushing Souleymane Sylla, a French Chelsea fan, off the train.
In his defence, Barklie said there was no racist motive in pushing Sylla and accusing the Frenchman of “aggression” for trying to board a crowded train.
Violence flared when Chelsea fans were in the French capital to watch the west London club’s Champions League match against Paris St-Germain on February 17.
Afterwards video surfaced showing Sylla being pushed off the train amid chants of “we’re racist and that’s the way we like it.”
The French commuter previously said the whole episode was “humiliating”.
— Aug 3, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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Tags: abhorrent arrogant banned behavior black man Champions League Chelsea fan Chelsea fans Dean Callis English football Europe five years football matches French Gareth Branston guilty hatred humiliating Jordan Munday Joshua Parsons Judge London Metro line nasty Northern Ireland off offensive Paris Paris St-Germain pushing Racism racist racist abuse refusing Richard Barklie Souleymane Sylla train utterly unacceptable William Simpson
