Hearts issue full apology to Goncalves over claims fans racially abused him
● Former striker says racism led him to leave the Tynecastle club
Hearts will issue a full apology to former striker Isma Goncalves after he claimed racist abuse played a significant part in his departure from the club in January.
The striker, who signed a two-year deal with Pakhtakov Tashkent in Uzbekistan last month, told the Edinburgh Evening News that racially-motivated taunts from a minority of Hearts supporters helped convince him to leave Scotland.
Hearts have promised to root out perpetrators of all prejudicial abuse and will apologise to the striker for being forced to endure such treatment while at Tynecastle. A strongly-worded statement released yesterday afternoon said the club would not “tolerate any incidence of such behaviour” from fans, a “very small number” of whom have let Hearts and other supporters down.
Goncalves was signed last year and scored 15 goals for the club. He previously played for St Mirren before spells in Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and Portugal. The player was signed by then Hearts head coach Ian Cathro last January.
Goncalves claimed that while he had not personally heard such abuse from the stands his family were aware of comments being directed at him while watching him play. His wife and young son stopped attending matches as a result. Goncalves was also subjected to abuse on Instagram, which he described as “really, really bad”.
In the interview he said he now hoped to “start afresh” in Uzbekistan, where he has joined a team managed by former Rangers player Shota Arveladze.
“In December I spoke with my family and decided, ‘OK, I am going to leave’,” he said. “When I came back to Edinburgh after Christmas, my wife stayed in Portugal. She said, ‘I will always support you but I cannot accept that the people are being racist with you, so I will not come back to a city where we are not welcome’.
“There were some people making racist comments to me in the stadium and my family did not feel okay about this,” he added. “It was a minority, but bad things even from a minority can have a big impact. My family should be able to go to the stadium and feel comfortable – it’s not nice when your son, your wife and your brother have to listen to people calling me ‘a f ****** black’.”
Hearts reacted quickly to the story, which appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Evening News. The club issued a statement urging supporters to report such incidents to the police or Hearts’ own incident report line. Steps will also be taken to make it easier for players and their families report such incidents of racist abuse.
“In relation to the recent report of racial abuse directed towards Isma Goncalves, Heart of Midlothian Football Club wishes to make it very clear that it abhors racism and any type of prejudicial abuse, and will not tolerate any incidence of such be haviour,” said Hearts in a statement. The club is committed to providing support for its players and a safe working environment for all staff, and if anyone is proven to have made racial remarks to individuals inside the stadium then they will be subject to an immediate football banning order and we will report every single such incident to Police Scotland for action.
“We would urge supporters who witness any such behaviour to contact the club, be it in person at Tynecastle, via our Supporter Services email address, by phoning us or by texting our incident report line in confidence, which can be found inside the stadium’s concourse.
“We are aware that, as ever, it is only a very small number of individuals who have let the club and themselves down in this manner.
“The club was unaware that theseincidentshadoccurred, but we will immediately implement some additional pro-active measures to ensure there is a simple and easy process for players and their families to report any such incident.
“We pride ourselves in being a multi-race and multicultural club and will take all steps to ensure that players and their families who join us here in Edinburgh, can do so, free from any concerns over prejudice.
“The club will be contacting Isma to apologise to him and his family on behalf of the thousands of supporters who share our anger and disappointment that they were subjected to this behaviour.”