Racial abuses have been taking care of with zero tolerance policy in recent times: may it be from a player or even a spectator, if a mistake happens on field; it is being punished immediately nowadays. In a latest incident, a man has been arrested for posturing as money in front of Manchester United’s Danny Welbeck in a Capital One Cup’s match between Manchester United and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. The spectator is a Chelsea fan and traced on social networking around a week after its happening. Anyhow, at the moment; he is in custody and facing racial aggravation charges. According to Police, “He was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated Section 4a Public Order Act offence and currently remains in custody at the west London police station. Inquiries continue.” The man is named Gavin Kirkham and is probably among the first few to be charged for his postures that could lead him proved guilty of racial abuses. Until date, only verbal communications were used to be charged under this section, but now a visual taunt is also considered under its vicinity.
Reportedly, authority was aware of this incident right from the beginning, since they were investigating the matter; they did not make it public. But after social media tracked down the culprit, they contacted the accused and arrested him. When he was asked about his side of the story, Gavin Kirkham simply denied being a racist; perhaps, on asking whether he would like to comment about it, he said, “Not at the moment, no.” He also made his defense that no police officer contacted him for that offence; moreover he was not even aware of the fact that he has made a mistake during match. Since, he was too busy in making his livelihood; he could not contact the police earlier, but when they called him; he surrendered to police.
Today, racial comments and postures have become too common to count them as an offence. Even many times, some spectators unintentionally make those postures in the wave of pleasure when they see their team winning or losing. So, it now depends upon the court if it considers it a typical case of racial abuse or just marks it an exception of soccer exaggeration. However, if a player uses any of those classified racial comments or postures; he should be subjected to a disciplinary action.