Arsenal have offered their full support to loanee Jordi Osei-Tutu after it was alleged he suffered racist abuse during his first match for VfL Bochum.
The 20-year-old moved to the German club last month on a season long loan from the Gunners.
And in their pre-season friendly against Swiss club St. Gallen, he was visibly upset upon hearing words from his opponent and stormed off the pitch just before half-time.
It is believed he did return for the second half.
Arsenal released a statement about the incident on their website on Wednesday.
It read: “Last night Jordi Osei-Tutu received unacceptable racial abuse playing for VfL Bochum during a pre-season friendly match against Swiss club St. Gallen.
“We are working closely with Bochum and Jordi and we are giving him our full support.
“Racism has no place in our game and we do not tolerate any form of discrimination.”
Osei-Tutu added: “I am very disappointed about what happened.
“No one should ever be subject to any discrimination and it is really hard to understand how a fellow professional footballer could do this.
“Arsenal and Bochum have provided great support to me and I hope that if nothing else, we can show that racism has no place within football.”
Bochum also announced they will be looking into the incident.
On social media, they said: “VfL Bochum vehemently condemns all forms of racism. Jordi, we stand behind you!
“The incident in yesterday’s test game against St. Gallen will be further processed with all participants. The club reserves the right to take further steps.”
St. Gallen, meanwhile, appeared to suggest that after consulting the player involved, no further action is needed.
“St. Gallen would like to make it clear the club condemns every form of racism or discrimination,” said the statement. “Any such behaviour will be punished.
“Our players treat each other with respect regardless of origins, skin colour or religion. The player who was involved in the incident has assured the club’s hierarchy that he stuck to the club’s philosophy in yesterday’s game against Bochum.”
Then, they appeared to say the player in question could not have used racist language because he has two ‘dark skinned team-mates’.
The club was responding to a tweet from another user, who claimed to have interpreted their statement as the matter being closed because the player in question denied using racist language.
First, they asked the user why they were certain their player was lying before adding that two of the player’s best friends are ‘dark-skinned’.
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