Palace hit out at racism allegation

19 October 2009 10:50
The Football Association are set to examine an incident at the end of Saturday's 1-1 draw between the sides at the Cardiff City Stadium. Jay Bothroyd claimed his fellow Bluebirds striker Chopra, who is of Indian descent, was the subject of a racial slur from a Palace player. Players from both sides had to be separated following the final whistle, and trouble reportedly continued in the tunnel. But Palace have strongly denied the allegations. A club statement read: "Crystal Palace FC would welcome any FA inquiry into racist comments allegedly made by one of our players at Saturday's match at Cardiff City. "Crystal Palace is a multi-ethnic club and is proud of its history in this respect. We take great exception at the outrageous allegations being levied at us by Cardiff City players and management. "We would like to make it known we are 100% supportive in this matter of all of our players and definitive in our belief none of them would make any racist comments. "As a club we are fully behind the Kick Racism Out of Football campaign, as are all of our players." Meanwhile, Cardiff released an official statement of their own signalling they will not be taking any action over the matter. "Following the publicity that surrounded comments that were allegedly directed towards our player Michael Chopra after last Saturday's match at the Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff City football club wish to draw a line under this issue and to look forward to tomorrow's match against Coventry City," read the statement on the club's official website. "There will be no further public statement regarding this alleged incident nor any action taken by this club or any of its employees." Whether the FA or the FAW opt to take any action of their own remains to be seen but they are likely to wait for the report from referee Steve Tanner.

Source: Team_Talk