I felt for the man, we had a long chat and I have no ill feelings for him whatsoever

MODEL ACE SHOWS HE’S A CLASS ACT OFF THE PITCH TOO

LEE CHIN has opened up about the racist abuse he suffered in a charity match between Wexford and Tipperary at Carrick-on-suir last year.

Chin’s team-mates were enraged at the time and confronted the man, with referee John Keenan blowing the game up early.

The man, in his 50s, was subsequently banned for 48 weeks by the GAA.

Chin says he didn’t speak out at the time as he didn’t want to make the situation worse for the man.

“I was quite conscious of him,” he said. “I genuinely was. Even my family were.

“We would be that way inclined at home and we were conscious of his feelings and how things can end up for him.

“I remember the phone call I had with him and he was very sorrowful and he couldn’t apologise any more.

“We had good conversations and I left the phone call wishing him well and letting him know that I had no hard feelings towards him. Things like that I hope were helpful towards him.”

Speaking at the launch of the Leinster Championships, Chin says he is fully aware of the seriousness of the situation.

“It’s not that I tend to stay away from it because it creates too much fuss,” he explained. “It’s not that at all but at the time it just wasn’t right. But that happened unfortunately then, and I received an apology from the man himself and we’ve exchanged phone calls since to talk about it.

“Look, there was a part of me at the time that felt sorry for him. He has a family of his own and what happened was unfortunate.

“But sometimes things are said in the heat of the moment and they’re not intentionally meant with any great malice.

“I had sympathy for him and his family at the time and still do but I think he’s very sorry for what happened on the day.

“We did have conversations since and things are smooth and I hope he’s doing well. There probably was a time I was going to talk about it but there’s probably never a right or wrong time either.

“Last year I just kind of let it flow over me because it was just a time that I wanted to let it slide for the minute.

“I was conscious at the time that the guy that it happened with, he was going through an awful lot at the time.

“Obviously with the fact that what he said, he was getting heat from it too.

“I just didn’t think it would have helped with me coming out and having a go everywhere.”

Other than bans increasing in the GAA, Chin believes very little has changed in society since he went public over a decade ago to outline racist abuse he suffered in a club game.

“Where are we? Look, all I can say in my own experience is not a whole lot has changed from when I was younger to now – it still tends to happen. I will be honest.

“It has never happened to me – and not that it should.

“But I’d like to state that it has never happened to me during a senior intercounty game at all, or any form of intercounty status level. It’s never happened.

“Obviously, speaking about it does help and there’s probably a lot of other people out there that experience it a lot more than I do and then there’s probably people out there that don’t experience it.

“You kind of have to try and be there for the people that maybe are experiencing it and maybe don’t know what to do.”

Chin says he is happy to support anyone who suffers racist abuse.

He said: “I’d be open to anybody if they were in a place in their life where they felt they needed that support.

“I’m not sure if I’ve experienced it all, but I’d absolutely be there for them if they wanted to chat or talk about it.”