A popular professional boxer has hit out at the 'mindless, bigoted' actions of a fellow football fan.
Olympic bronze medallist and British middleweight Anthony Ogogo was applauding the Norwich City players off the pitch after they lost the Carabao Cup tie 2-1 in extra time on Tuesday, when he said his night was marred by the subsequent racial abuse he suffered.
After an 'emotional, thrilling game' at the Emirates Stadium the last thing Mr Ogogo expected as he clapped and cheered the players was to be sworn at and subjected to 'nasty' racial abuse from a fellow Norwich supporter.
Norwich fan Mr Ogogo had watched his team put up a battling display against the Premier League giants, but at the end of the game he was racially abused by a City fan as he cheered the players and was mistaken for an Arsenal supporter. He said he was 'utterly disgusted' by the behaviour.
However he acknowledged this was just an isolated incident among the 'amazing' travelling fans – saying the 9,000 fans who had made the trip gave their team 'terrific support.'
He said: 'After such an emotional, thrilling game I was upset by what had happened. I don't want this mindless, bigoted man to reflect in any way on the amazing 9,000 fans. I live in London now for training and my friend is an Arsenal season ticket holder, so I was sat just above the Norwich fans in a corporate seat behind the goal wearing neutral colours.
'After such a thrilling game, where Norwich were up against one of the best teams in Europe and the players had worked their socks off, I wanted to salute them at the end of the game. I like everybody else stayed behind to cheer the lads on, so I went to the front of railings and stood there clapping and cheering.
'This old boy (a Norwich supporter) seemed very upset. He was giving me the two fingers and swearing at me, saying pretty nasty stuff so I said 'listen mate I am a Norwich fan.'
It was then when Mr Ogogo was sworn at and told to 'go back to your own country,' followed by a racist slur. Mr Ogogo said: 'I was disgusted and did not know what to say. I was really taken aback and quite upset by it. This old boy was may be in his seventies, and as a Norwich fan he would've been supporting Justin Fashanu, Ruel Fox, Cameron Jerome over the years. In 2017 I did not think this was still prevalent in the game – I was just disgusted. I'm pretty thick-skinned as a professional athlete but it was really disappointing and a real shame as it tarnished the evening.
'By raising it now hopefully people can make a difference in the future.'
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