Police close investigation into Antonio Rudiger racist abuse allegation

6 January 2020, 19:31

Police have closed their investigation into Chelsea player Antonio Rudiger's allegation of racist abuse during a football game after they found “no evidence” to support it.

The defender claimed he was subjected to monkey chants in his side's 2-0 win at Spurs on December 22, but an "extensive" investigation, using CCTV and professional lip readers, has been unable to identify any perpetrators.

Rudiger told his captain Cesar Azpilicueta that he had been abused shortly after his role in Son Heung-min's second-half red card in the Premier League match before Christmas.

Spurs responded swiftly, launching a full investigation alongside the police and vowing to issue lifetime bans to anyone found guilty.

But the Metropolitan Police have now closed the case and no action will be taken.

Tottenham said in a statement: "The Club and the Metropolitan Police have now exhausted all avenues of investigation following the reported incident at our home fixture against Chelsea on 22 December.

“We carried out extensive reviews of CCTV images and footage, working with professional lip readers.

“All materials and reports have now also been reviewed by the police who have carried out their own investigation.

“The police have notified us today that, having reviewed and investigated, they have closed the crime report as they can find no evidence to support the allegation of racial abuse.

“We fully support Antonio Rudiger with the action that he took - however there is no evidence to corroborate or contradict the allegation and as such neither ourselves nor the police are in a position to take any further action.

“We are fiercely proud of our anti-racism work and our zero tolerance of any form of discrimination.

“This is one reason why we have attributed so much time and resource to investigating this matter.

“Had we identified anyone guilty of this we were intent on issuing them with a lifetime ban from our stadium as they would have no place among our proud, diverse fan base.

“If any new information comes to light, this will be fully investigated.”