‘Sick’ football thugs cant homophobic, racist abuse on packed train in front of kids
Unruly riders on a train coming down to London chanted ‘vile abuse’. (Screen captures via Twitter)
British football club Brentford has launched an investigation after boisterous fans hurled homophobic, racist and antisemitic chants on a train.
As children looked on, the huddle of men on a train from Anfield, Liverpool, to London chanted “batty boys”, “Jewish shack” and “Welsh P**i-shoot the Pakistani”, witnesses said Sunday (16 January).
Alarming video footage filmed by Labour councillor Mas Patel shows the Brentford fans shouting “batty boys” repeatedly.
Patel had spent the day with his son to watch the Bees go down 3-0 against Liverpool FC in the Sunday kick-off.
During the train ride back home, “mindless idiots” shouted racial taunts as well as made comments against Liverpool fans in relation to the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989.
WTF! Some of the vile chants from a pack of @BrentfordFC fans are spewing on my train back from Anfield with my 12yr old
1. "Welsh Paki-shoot the Pakistani"
2. "Jewish shack"
3. "Batty boys"
4. The S*n we're right, you're murderers
Most are teens!@AvantiWestCoast @BTP #LIVBRE pic.twitter.com/ntU2n6dmEj
— Mas Patel (@maspatel01) January 16, 2022
So I call out the racist, homophobic chanting and I'm asked to leave the carriage. Ok, it's for my safety, I know. they picked up my tweets and fronted me.
Anyway, they all saw how upset I was and thanks to the @BrentfordFC fan who stood up for me. ??? Total respect ?— Mas Patel (@maspatel01) January 16, 2022
Brentford FC denounces footie fans for their ‘abusive, discriminatory behaviour’
“No one should have to travel on public transport with their loved ones and have to endure horrific abuse,” Patel, a councillor for the east London borough of Newham, told PinkNews.
“That’s exactly the position I found myself in on Sunday when returning from a football match in Liverpool with my 12-year-old child.
“The perpetrators were so young and feral and I find it hard to understand where all this hate comes from. If it’s not their peers then it’s those of an older generation.”
Patel, a proud LGBT+ ally, explained that he and a fellow Brentford supporter stood up against the rowdy riders while on the train, but on-board staff struggled to tame them.
Their inaction, he said, “allowed the thugs to keep chanting those vile words.”
He was asked to leave the carriage for his own safety and British Transport Police were not called during the incident, he claimed.
“But this cannot be the norm,” Patel added, “and I would have been ashamed of myself if I had simply remained silent and looked the other way, even though it’s sometimes the easiest thing to do.”
A general view of Brentford fans and flags during the Premier League match between Brentford and Aston Villa. (Ben Peters/MB Media/Getty Images)
On Monday, west London football club Brentford denounced the passengers in a Twitter statement, adding that the fans’ barbed comments go against the values of the club and it will cooperate fully with the police.
“We condemn any abusive or discriminatory behaviour that has taken place,” the statement read. “We will be investigating and will follow up on these awful reports.
“We are a club for all. Discrimination has no place at Brentford FC.”
It comes after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that the “Chelsea rent boy” chant amounts to a homophobic hate crime and is anything but “harmless banter”.
Echoing this, Patel said that some fans have long shrugged off discriminatory jeers as part of football culture. This can’t go on.
“I only hope the mindless idiots who thought they were being funny and that such behaviour is acceptable in today’s society now understand it’s not,” he said.
“As a society, we all have an equal right to live and enjoy our lives without any form of discrimination.
“It’s so important that we all stand with each other to fight racism and discrimination in all its forms.”
