Hungary fan arrested over alleged racist abuse of steward at Wembley as away supporters clash with police

Jack Rosser @JackRosser_13 October 2021

A Hungary supporter was arrested for the alleged racist abuse of a Wembley Stadium steward as police clashed with travelling supporters during England’s World Cup qualifier on Tuesday night.

The Football Association have opened an investigation and reported the incident to FIFA after ugly scenes in the opening minutes.

Travelling supporters had already booed England players taking the knee and held up a flag objecting to the anti-racism gesture ahead of kick-off and were then tussling with police within the opening five minutes.

Metropolitan Police officers used batons to try and control the crowd but were forced to retreat to the concourse following the clashes.

In a statement, the Met said: “Shortly after the start of tonight’s match at Wembley, officers entered the stand to arrest a spectator for a racially aggravated public order offence following comments made towards a steward.

“As the officers made the arrest, minor disorder broke out involving other spectators. Order was quickly restored and there have been no further incidents at this stage.”

The Football Association said: “We are aware of an incident in the away section during tonight’s FIFA 2022 World Cup Qualifier at Wembley Stadium. We will be investigating and will report the incident to FIFA.”

It comes after a string of incidents involving the nation’s supporters during the European Championships and in games since. UEFA have ordered Hungary to play a game behind closed doors following racist abuse from supporters and homophobic banners in the stands during their Euro 2020 group stage matches.

England’s players were then subjected to racist abuse by supporters during their 4-0 win in Budapest last month. Supporters were allowed to attend that game as it was under the jurisdiction of FIFA.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in