A 47-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially abusing Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo during the Premier League match against Liverpool on Friday. Merseyside Police confirmed the arrest on Saturday, stating the man from Liverpool was detained on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and taken into custody for questioning.
The incident occurred in the 29th minute of the first fixture of the season at Anfield, prompting referee Anthony Taylor to halt play. Semenyo reported the abuse to officials, leading to the ejection of a spectator from the stadium. Chief Inspector Kev Chatterton, match commander for the game, said: 'Merseyside police will not tolerate hate crime of any form. We take incidents like this very seriously, and in cases like this we will be proactively seeking football banning orders, with the club, against those responsible.'
Liverpool FC issued a statement condemning the abuse, saying: 'We condemn racism and discrimination in all forms; it has no place in society, or football.' The club confirmed it was aware of the allegation and was working with authorities.
In a separate incident on Saturday, a second arrest was made over racist abuse at a League One match between Bradford City and Luton Town. Bradford City AFC said West Yorkshire Police detained an individual in the away section for allegedly racially abusing a Bradford player. The club reiterated its zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination.
Bradford manager Graham Alexander commented: 'We saw it last night at the Liverpool game – it has to be zero tolerance. There's no excuse for it, at all.'
