Chelsea's head coach Mauricio Pochettino has addressed the racism allegations against the club's captain Conor Gallagher in his pre-match press conference.
Mauricio Pochettino, the manager of Chelsea football club, has expressed his disappointment with social media trolls. He admitted to feeling upset due to criticism of Conor Gallagher's behaviour before the team's match with Burnley on Saturday, March 30, 2024.
A video emerged online, showing Gallagher unintentionally ignoring a high-five from a Black mascot, after acknowledging a white mascot in the Stamford Bridge tunnel before the game. This led to accusations of racism online.
Chelsea responded to this by releasing a statement, claiming that the clip had been taken out of context. They also stated that the level of abuse and defamatory comments directed towards Gallagher was unacceptable. The club added that they are proud to be an inclusive and diverse club, welcoming people from all cultures, communities, and identities. Pochettino, addressing the media earlier today, Wednesday, April 3, 2024, before Chelsea's home game against Manchester United, passionately defended his midfielder.
The head coach in his interview stated, "That has upset me so much because no one wants to do something like this with this intention. He was so wary of too many videos, photography and pictures about if he was really aware of both mascots. When you play football, when you are there and you are focusing on too many things, you focus to play, to start the game, that sometimes can happen."
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He went on to add, "But I think people want to abuse people. People always try to find things to create a mess and to abuse the people that, if you know ... I know Conor. I know the people that are involved here in Chelsea. I can talk for the people that I know and come on, never is that intention. Conor is a great, great kid and is always caring about everything. I hate when the people feel free to abuse on social media in things like this. You don't believe that we need to stop these types of things? It's like today if to abuse the people is so easy and then it is to pay attention of that when it never happened."
"To give too much attention to the people who want to create this type of thing, this mess, and to insult and to abuse other people, please stop. I think we are all responsible for that. How is it possible that the intention of Conor is to ignore a mascot? Come on. And then, come on, it makes me very sad because I know Conor and he does not deserve to be abused. No one deserves to be abused but him, come on, knowing him... I am seeing too many things happening not only in England but the rest of the world. Our responsibility altogether is to try to ignore these type of things and the people who try to create this type of things never help our lives. Of course, the game that we are involved in, football, the people that come, does not deserve to pay attention. We need to keep moving and for me it is about to support Conor, to support all the people that sometimes get abused."
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