Chelsea Paris Metro racists: Jason Cundy leads Blues outrage at 'mindless scum who don't represent us'
Chelsea supporters have reacted furiously to the racist behaviour of the club's fans last night, and insisted that those caught on camera in a Paris Metro station do not represent them.
IBTimes UK columnists Jason Cundy and David Chidgey have both spoken out at the shock and disgust they felt upon seeing the footage, which shows a group of fans preventing a black man from entering a tube train before chanting "we're racist, and that's the way we like it."
Cundy, a former Chelsea defender who now works as a journalist and presenter for talkSPORT, described the fans as "knuckle-dragging, mindless scum", while Chidgey, who presents the independent Chelsea Fancast show, suggested these supporters wish to return "to the dark ages of football".
Cundy told IBTimes UK: "I saw the video last night and immediately it's hard to put into words, but the obvious reaction was sickness to the pit of my stomach at what I saw.
"These are knuckle-dragging, mindless scum who unfortunately follow Chelsea. They embarrass me as a Chelsea fan.
"If you look at the way the club have operated over the years, the hooligan element has been largely eradicated. But this just reminds us all that, despite the fact we think we have come a long way, it's never over."
Cundy also revealed he has been targeted on Twitter by people eager to paint him as guilty by association.
"People have used this as a stick to tweet, indirectly calling me a racist and calling my club a racist club. I am an easy target, I'm on national radio and I will always speak out in favour of the club.
"It just goes to show the mindless minority that will use this as a tool."
'Misplaced thuggish unity hiding behind a badge'
Chidgey, meanwhile, said: "Thankfully, the majority of Chelsea supporters do not have a racist bone in their body, let alone contemplate pushing an innocent black Parisien off the Metro, proudly declaring 'we are racist, and that's how we like it' while they do it.
"What on earth goes through their minds when they do this? Is it some perverse desire to belong to the dark ages of football, or a stand of misplaced thuggish unity hiding behind the badge of a club and its supporters they are doing so much to besmirch with these cowardly actions?
"It is tempting to say very little goes through their minds for these are truly mindless actions when you consider that 60% of Chelsea's playing staff and some the greatest Chelsea players to wear the blue shirt are black.
"Their behaviour is in every sense inhuman. It is born of fear, insecurity and cowardly prejudice but that does not exonerate it. The club have announced that they will seek to ban any of the offenders and rightly so, although it may prove hard to ferret them out even with what appears to be cast iron video evidence.
"Whatever the outcome and the remaining fall out, as a Chelsea supporter, they do not represent me and everyone I know who supports the club, and they certainly do not do this in my name."
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