Police investigating a report of racial abuse during Swansea City's win over Millwall have confirmed they've made an arrest. A 51-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday, 14 October at an address in Kent on suspicion of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.
The match on Tuesday night was paused for around seven minutes midway into the second half, after the visitors reported hearing alleged racist abuse aimed at Eom Jisung while the Korean was warming up on the sideline.
Arrest and bail
Millwall made an announcement at The Den confirming the allegation had been made, while referee Edward Duckworth held lengthy discussions with both sets of coaches. Both sides released statements in the wake of the incident, while the Metropolitan Police later confirmed they had opened an investigation.
"He was taken to a south London police station and he has been released on bail until a date in mid-January pending further enquiries," the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. "The Metropolitan Police Service takes all reports of discriminatory abuse seriously and will work with football clubs and relevant stakeholders to investigate allegations of this nature."
Manager reactions
Swansea boss Vitor Matos praised the hosts for the way they handled the situation on the night, although his opposite number Alex Neil expressed frustrations that the game was stopped, with his comments criticised by fans and anti-racism campaigners.
Matos, however, threw his backing behind the importance of anti-racism protocols. "I think when this kind of situation happens, you have a tool that you can use against these situations," he said. "You need to use it because that's how you can somehow bring attention to a problem and try to fight against that problem as well."
Commitment to protocol
"So in that moment football is, let's say, the least important of all in that," Matos added. "I think it's a tool. For however long in human history we have had these kind of problems, and we are always trying to sort it out. At the moment that's the tool we have in football to do it. So that's what we should use."
"If that happens we will report it in the future and if the game needs to stop, the game will stop. We will not change our approach if we have the tool to do that."
