This archive report was first published on 23 December 2019.
On December 22, 2019, Chelsea's Antonio Rudiger was allegedly subjected to racist abuse by Tottenham fans during a Premier League match.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard expressed his support for Rudiger and called for strong action against racist abuse.
"All I know is Toni Rudiger said he heard racist chanting. I haven't had a conversation with him. Of course I support him," Lampard said.
However, Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho risked adding to the controversy by mocking Rudiger's role in Son Heung-min's dismissal.
"I hate racism in society, I hate racism in football. I'm disappointed that things like that can happen. The club is a very proud club in this kind of situation and internally we will try to deal with it," Mourinho said.
But Mourinho then took a swipe at Rudiger, effectively accusing him of play-acting to get Son sent off.
"For me it is not a red card. For me it was really bad and basically kills the game," Mourinho said.
"Rudiger for sure is having scans in the hospital on the broken ribs because it was really a violent situation!
Meanwhile, a subsequent Tottenham statement said the club were "conducting a thorough investigation" that would include liaising with Chelsea players and staff.
"Any form of racism is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our stadium," the statement added.
"We take any such allegations extremely seriously and shall take the strongest possible action against any individual found to be behaving in such a way, including stadium bans."
