A Liverpool fan who claims to have witnessed the alleged incident that saw Antoine Semenyo subjected to racist abuse at Anfield has shared his side of the story on social media. Shortly before the half-hour mark of the Premier League opener between the Reds and Bournemouth, play was stopped as referee Anthony Taylor spoke to both sets of managers and members of Merseyside Police, before the game continued.
While Semenyo would go on to score twice in the second half, an investigation took place to establish what happened, eventually leading to one supporter being escorted out of the stadium by police. And now, someone who was nearby when the abuse took place has shared the true extent of what happened.
Fan Breaks Down Semenyo Incident
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Taking to X after the game, a fan named Nick Collins gave a detailed breakdown of the incident after being asked to, following an original tweet of his that had garnered traction. In the subsequent post, Collins went into the Semenyo incident more thoroughly.
"I’ll go into the details on tonight as I have hundreds of replies to my earlier post and there’s no point replying to them all," the tweet began.
"About 28 mins into the game, Semenyo goes to take a throw in. He’s not a player that goads the fans and seems like a decent lad. The sort of player that people want playing for their club.
"For reasons I’ll never know, the fella near me decides to go over to him and shouts something at Semenyo. Semenyo then asks him to repeat it and he repeated it and threw his chewing gum at him.
"Then 2 mins later the play is stopped. It was just uncomfortable to be around and we wanted him gone. The stewards didn’t have a clue what was going on either."
Collins would go on to say that the realisation of what may have transpired set in as Liverpool scored their opener through Hugo Ekitike, before then explaining the process of the fan being removed from the stadium.
"He was eventually removed from the ground at 21:01 by police. Firstly saying he’d refuse to move and wouldn’t leave but then agreeing to leave, then kicking off.
"I believe there is some kind of protocol where the police have to remove them and not stewards and they have to get a sort of investigation going first.
"So the club now have to help the police with an investigation and rightly so. If he’s found to have racially abused Semenyo, he needs to be banned for life. No excuses."
After the game, Liverpool put out a statement on the club website condeming any discriminatory abuse, while also saying an investigation was being conducted.
"Liverpool Football Club is aware of an allegation of racist abuse made during our Premier League game against AFC Bournemouth," the statement read.
"We condemn racism and discrimination in all forms, it has no place in society or football.
"The club is unable to comment further as tonight's alleged incident is the subject of an ongoing police investigation, which we will support fully."