The Football Association has confirmed it is investigating allegations by Norwich City striker Cameron Jerome that he was racially abused by Giuseppe Bellusci during last night’s game at Carrow Road.
Jerome complained to Mark Clattenburg midway through the first half, but the referee wasn’t able to take immediate action against Bellusci as neither he nor any of the other match officials had hear what was actually said. However, Clattenburg spoke to the management of both clubs during the half time interval and will draw attention to the allegation when he makes his match report.
Ironically, back in 2012 Clattenburg was himself the subject of an allegation by Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel that he had used racist language when speaking to the player, but that charge was later dismissed by the FA.
This is the only comment so far from the FA about last night’s events. "We are investigating the allegations and that is all we can say at this time. We would not put a timescale on those investigations.” After the game Darko Milanic told the Yorkshire Post "I have not spoken to my player yet - I will speak to him laterIt’s difficult for me to comment on something I didn’t hear. This is all very new to me.”
And Norwich manager Neil Adams said "Of course we will be backing Cameron all the way. I haven’t heard what the remark was. We don’t need to and I don’t think he would have reacted in the way he did if it hadn’t happened. We don’t want to prejudice any hearing, but that’s what he has alleged and we’ll now follow it through the right channels.”
If Bellusci is found guilty of using racist language he can expect a lengthy ban, though some Leeds fans will think that would be no great loss, as his defending has been erratic in the games we’ve played so far. We can admire the enthusiasm he plays with, though he does tend to lose his rag at times and his antics aren’t always in the proper spirit of the game.
Bellusci has yet to make any comment about the incident, but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Massimo Cellino has waded into the argument on his behalf. "Bellusci is no racist. I spoke with him and he said ‘you must be joking, I said nothing like this to him (Jerome).’ He is surprised by this. He is shocked.”
"Bellusci says he spoke (to Jerome) in Italian. I don’t know if he (Jerome) speaks Italian too but Bellusci swears to me he said nothing racist. He was p****d off, sure, because he got hit in the neck and the face but he denies anything racist. I believe him and and I’ll support him.”
But Cellino also said that he won’t tolerate racists at the club. "I’ll write to them to clarify my position on Bellusci and racism. If any Leeds player was shown to be a racist, he’d be out. That’s my philosophy and my promise.”
I’m not sure what the point would be of talking to Jerome in Italian, when he presumably doesn’t speak the language, but perhaps Bellusci wasn’t thinking straight in the heat of the moment. It could well be that Jerome didn’t realise Bellusci was babbling in his native tounge and thought he’d said something different in English.
Whatever was actually said, we’ll just have to hope that the FA manage to sort it all out and come to the right conclusion.