Football London writer Danyal Khan has described the alleged homophobic chanting at Watford’s game against Southampton as “truly unacceptable but not surprising.”
The incident is said to have taken place in Watford’s 1-0 defeat against Southampton at Vicarage Road, in which Che Adams scored the only goal of the game.
It was reported by Hornets fan Alexander Pitt, who took to Twitter to explain that he had to leave the ground early due to hearing homophobic chanting, including the word ‘rent boy’.
“The term ‘rent boy’ is used a lot, but nobody really knows what it means and the people in front of him (Alexander Pitt) also probably didn’t know what it meant,” said Khan.
“We have to educate more and make these people aware of what these terms mean because if we don’t then this will just keep going on.
“There’s so much work to do and it won’t happen overnight and it’s unfortunate that no action was taken at the time, but seeing Watford’s statement about investigating it is definitely a positive step forward from where we were a few years ago, when these incidents would get swept under the carpet.”
A club statement read: “We are aware of an incident of homophobic chanting at Saturday’s match.
“We have spoken to the supporter who reported this and are working with them to identify the individuals responsible.
“We reiterate our zero-tolerance approach to discrimination and how to report it.”
Watford’s next Premier League fixture is away at Arsenal on Sunday, November 7 at 14:00.
