CHELSEA OFFER CALLUM COUNSELLING
Counselling offered to young England star
CHELSEA will offer Callum HudsonOdoi counselling after two weeks in which the England teenager has been subjected to racial abuse while representing both his club and country.
Monkey chants were directed at the 18-year- old and his England team-mates Raheem Sterling and Danny Rose during Monday night’s 5-1 win over Montenegro in Podgorica.
UEFA charged Montenegro for racist behaviour by fans, and if they are found guilty at a hearing on May 16, the minimum sanction is a partial stadium closure.
Just 11 days before, Chelsea were outraged when Hudson-Odoi was seemingly targeted by Dynamo Kiev fans during their Europa League clash in Ukraine.
He started and scored the Blues’ last goal in the 5-0 win in Kiev, where monkey chants were apparently aimed at the youngster before the final whistle.
The club lodged an official complaint to UEFA, who yesterday announced their intention to investigate. Chelsea offered the player support and will do the same after this latest incident involving their talented star.
Sterling celebrated scoring England’s fifth goal by putting his fingers to his ears — to symbolise silencing the racists.
Rose was booked for a challenge in stoppage time and those inside the stadium said the racial abuse was clearly audible. That included manager Gareth Southgate, who said: ‘There is no doubt in my mind that happened.’
Hudson- Odoi remained composed afterwards as he told BeIN Sports: ‘I don’t think discrimination should be anywhere. It’s unacceptable and hopefully UEFA deal with it properly because when I went over there, me and Rosey heard it… all the monkey stuff.’
Anti- discrimination body, Fare, had flagged England’s game against Montenegro as high risk and had an observer at the fixture.
Southgate continued: ‘We’ll deal with it in the right way. We’ve got to support our players.’
Chelsea previously offered counselling to Nathan Blake, who spent 15 months at the club as a youth team player until 1990. He claimed coaching staff repeatedly used racial slurs during his time there.