What’s The Story?
Chennaiyin FC defeated NorthEast United on Thursday night by a margin of 3-0 in their second home game in this season of ISL. There was, however, a rather unsavoury incident that took place in the gallery as a Chennaiyin supporter allegedly eve-teased and racially abused a NorthEast fan.
A video went viral, showing a boy dancing in a vulgar manner in front of a female NorthEast fan. An official within Chennaiyin FC has confirmed that the boy was drunk, and was indeed eve-teasing the NorthEast fan.
The context
The video shows that a group of NorthEast fans were sitting in a row and the young man in front of them, who was supposedly a Chennaiyin fan, started dancing and gesticulating in a peculiar manner. Surprisingly, people around them did not intervene.
The heart of the matter
NorthEast United owner John Abraham has already issued an official statement on Twitter.
Indian football fans are fuming about this incident and want quick action against the perpetrator. The unfortunate incident shadowed the result of the match, something that we do not want to see in the beautiful game. Abraham also said that neither he nor Abhishek Bachchan, who is the co-owner of Chennaiyin FC supports such incident. He even went on to call those fans "fake".
What’s next?
With such acts of alleged racism and eve-teasing happening within the sanctity of the football arena, the authorities would be doubly alert in the future, to stamp out such incidents, and keep the fans who travel to the stadium safe.
It’s a shame, not only ISL, but also for the entire country that such an incident is taking place in a football arena. India is growing as a footballing nation and ISL has viewers from across the world. Such acts in a football stadium will definitely not make the image of the country any better.
(Source: Sportskeeda)
