Updated at 22.40
CHELSEA’S NIGERIA MIDFIELDER John Obi Mikel was forced to close his Twitter account on Thursday after suffering a barrage of racist abuse prompted by his costly mistake against Juventus.
Mikel removed his profile from the micro-blogging website less than 24 hours after his blunder contributed to Juventus’s late equaliser as Chelsea were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw in the opening match of their Champions League defence at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Chelsea originally insisted it was coincidental that Mikel had decided to delete the ‘Mikel12Official’ account he only set up earlier this year.
But the European champions later admitted they had informed the police after being made aware of the unacceptable nature of the abuse Mikel had endured.
“We’ve been made aware of racist tweets targeted at Mikel which are totally unacceptable, disgusting and abhorrent,” a Chelsea statement read.“We’ve informed the police and support taking the strongest possible action.”
Mikel gave the ball away with a careless pass 10 minutes from the final whistle and Juventus took advantage as Claudio Marchisio played in Fabio Quagliarella for the equaliser.
The 25-year-old apologised immediately afterwards, saying: “If I want to make up an excuse, I can. But, for me, I gave the ball away. I put my hands up, we move on.
It is not the first time a footballer has left the site after receiving abuse, with Irish international Darron Gibson among others, deleting their accounts in the past.
Meanwhile, the issue of racist abuse was also a talking point following tonight’s Europa League game between Tottenham and Lazio at White Hart Lane, after away fans allegedly directed monkey chants at Spurs striker Jermain Defoe.
Additional reporting by Paul Fennessy
I hope more people get in trouble for abuse online, it’ll help sort out the nasty people.
Man, did anyone here actually watch the match?
Everyone was giving the ball away. You’d need to be a complete moron to single out Mikel!
Oh wait…
Unreal. Abused by his own fans.
If they can arrest a guy for his comment re Tom Daleys’s dad I’m sure they can arrest someone for vile racist abuse.
Anyone who thinks another person is inferior because they have a different skin colour is a moron
That is unreal…some fans,some human beings….it’s the ones that don’t even flinch when arrested for racist abuse are the ones to worry about….
Just for the record before anyone jumps down my neck ,
I’m not abusing his family,I’m not racially abusing him,compared to me he has 100 times more talent and he’s paid a lot more than me , but he’s a sh*t footballer,
This is the same club whose fans make gas chamber hissing sounds when playing Spurs
And call them the yids.
Spurs fans refer themselves to as Yids.
I dont know what was said, but jesus christ, grow up and get on with it. I dont agree with racism whatsoever, but the whole PC thing has gone too far now – Slag someone and it makes the news!
I’ve got black english mates who slag me for being a”f&€kin’ paddy!” – can i get them arrested?!
Hey Paddy o think your grand so don’t stress
go to bed mike :)
Alleged racial abuse.
Chelsea have a history steeped in the national front that they’d love to pretend never was. Alleged my arse!
You keep JT out of this!!
its cases like these two top stories on the journal tonite dat really turn u off social networking sites!
Social networking sites and soccer!
I think you are pretty myopic if you believe that racism is confined solely to football, indeed the British game in particular has done more work than any other sport I can think of to eradicate this. That said, this behaviour is unacceptable and should be punished to the full extent of the law.
It looks to me that an overpaid footballer set to a twitter account so people could tell him how GREAT he is. He then screws up and finds the tweets are telling how CRAP he is. He then closes the account and claims it was because of racial abuse. HUMMMM…… .
racism is rife at certain clubs and allways will be,, you cant educate the ignorant,
Follow Joey Barton for ten minutes. He brings alot of it on himself, but My God, he takes savage abuse. Unless there was a seriuos amount of racially charged comments, Mikel should shut up and get on with it.
Mikel doesn’t have a history of stubbing cigars out in youth team players’ eyes, or beating a team mate up til he’s knocked out… I could go on and on here…
Fair enough
Anyone here know what was actually tweeted, before we start accusing accusing people of being racist.
You do a simple search on twitter for tweets to @mickel12Official Among the users being named and shamed with their racist words retweeted are @Xsprime and @IamJR__
Strangely many of the most abusive tweets seem to come from accounts belonging to black men.
I see loads of people are giving me thumbs down but no one can post what was actually tweeted. KANGAROO COURT here I think.
Not me mike , think ur spot on
Many members of my golf club here in the UK actually go apoplectic at the sight of a coloured person. For some time they often spoke to me in, what they considered, an Irish accent. I found that the two words ‘f##k off’ were quite effective in putting a stop to that.
Der’s more to Oireland dan dis.
Lets just hope John Terry’s not involved, cos he was to blame stepping up to play the offside.
I get a majority thumbs down for my last post but Moe gets a majority thumbs up for agreeing with me. Its a funny world here in Journal Land.
Don’t fret mike it’s fine to abuse white people. I get it all the time in work over in England, “oh i suppose you’ll be getting pissed tonight James?”. “why is that?”. “because you’re Irish”. Doesn’t really annoy me but would you say to an Asian person “you eating noodles tonight?, sure all you love them”.
Don’t even let it bother you I couldn’t care less what anyone calls me Black or White we are all the same. Anyone intimatated by remarks . They are the sick ones stand up you are stronger than them
i ll reather blame the coach roberto di mattieo,why he allow essien to join real madrid? essien is better than obi mikel.
I never realised jt was even on twitter
The real issue is that anyone can make a mistake and give the ball away but some football fans are idiots. However a lot of those idiots are players too. Football is an amalgam of cheating fouling abusing at any cost. Chelsea’s issue is that their Captain is a racist according to the FA. Now they are clearly supporting racism if you believe the Chelsea footballer. The police were satisfied no racism had taken place. The Ref didn’t say anything according to the other officials.
What sort of people are running the FA? What sort of club are Chelsea. Bill Shankly would have sorted this.
Please stop using Footballers as role models. If all our children grow up like Footballers the whole world would end!