Former Super Eagles captain, John Mikel Obi was the subject of racist abuse when his club, Trabzonspor won 2-1 over Fenerbahce on Saturday evening.
In what was an emotionally charged match, the former Chelsea player was subjected to racial abuse from the Fenerbache supporters.
His club refused to let the unfortunate incident go without punishment and went on to file a criminal complaint demanding that the perpetrators be brought to face the law.
It started when the former Super Eagles captain got into a heated exchange with Fenerbahce midfielder, Emre Belözoğlu and had to be calmed down by his teammates.
Although Mikel revealed the former Inter Milan player did not racially abuse him. But, the Fenerbache’s fans started at that time to racially attack him.
‘He did not racially abuse me’, Mikel told AOIFootball.com. ‘It was just the match tension which caused a little spur of the moment. We just had an argument, but everything is fine now,’ He added.
Nevertheless, his club, Trabzonspor revealed they have filed a criminal complaint, and they expect the culprits to be fished out. They also started the #WeStandwithObi and #SayNoToRacism draw support for Mikel.
In a statement on their official Twitter page, the club condemned the act, saying there’s no room for racism in football.
‘Racism is a shelter for helpless and ignorant. We condemn the racist attacks against our player Obi Mikel after the match against Fenerbahçe and we bring to the public attention that a criminal complaint has been filed against the assailants.
Their statement was echoed by Mikel’s teammate, Joao Periera who said ‘it’s disappointing we are still talking about racism in 2020.’
Mikel is not the first black player to suffer racism abuse in Turkey as Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Eboue also received the same treatment during their time at Galatasaray.
