Siewert condemns ‘brainless’ abuse
JAN Siewert has condemned the racial abuse midfielder Philip Billing allegedly received on social media.
West Yorkshire Police arrested a 16-year-old boy on Wednesday morning for allegedly posting an abusive message to Billing, urging him to leave the club.
“First of all I can say we as a club, and me personally, we don’t tolerate something like this. This is unacceptable for me,” Siewert said.
“This is a brainless comment. Racism should not be tolerated and I can’t believe something like this still happens today.
“I spoke to Philip this morning and he is fine. He trained also today and we spoke about it and I back him.
“But we shouldn’t talk about this because it gives these people a platform. We should talk about the people who are exceptional in this country.
“We’re talking about one per cent instead of 99 per cent. Let’s talk about the 99 per cent and not of someone like this.”
Siewert said he did not know whether the incident was likely to force Billing to consider his future at the club.
“I don’t know. For me I was just talking to him about how he feels at the moment. I asked him if he was able to train and he said ‘yes, of course I’m able to train’,” Siewert added.
And Town forward Elias Kachunga also spoke out over the abuse.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Kachunga.
“I think there are a lot of things like that - there is still war. This is a thing as well and war is not changing at the moment.”
The German, of Congolese descent, said Billing did the right thing and urged everyone to follow his example and report racist abuse when they see it. Added Kachunga : “Everyone has to try to stop these things to make it a better world.
“When you see something, report it and help people.
“I think Phil did the right thing. Reporting it shows everyone that this guy is an idiot.”
Asked if he has received racist abuse during his career, the 26-yearold replied: “Not really, there are sometimes some moments but as I was saying we have to say everyone against racism.
“It’s the same as the guy who runs on the pitch, sometimes people are not like everyone - normal - they’re a little bit crazy.
“So we have to try to stop these people but as well don’t give them a big platform to perform or to be in the media much.”