Lifetime ban issued for racist gesture

A lifetime ban has been issued following an incident at Priestfield.

The club's Director of Operations, Joe Comper, has released the below following an incident which occurred during the first-half against Newport County at Priestfield on Saturday October 28.

 

“I think most people will have seen the clips on social media and I just wanted to reaffirm what action we have taken and our stance on this sort of behaviour.

“One thing that people will see today from the way that we have responded, is that our stance is zero tolerance.

“We are absolutely disgusted, and we are frustrated if I’m honest.

“We have dealt with it within 30 seconds, the person involved was taken and arrested by the Police.

“Statements have been taken throughout the game and we have actually spent a lot of time dealing with that incident throughout the game to make sure that the person gets dealt with, and dealt with appropriately, that will now be handled by the Police.

“I think it is quite clear – everyone has seen the video and everyone can see what has happened. But it’s important that we, as a club, show that we take it very seriously. We dealt with it very quickly and the person was dealt with.

“One thing that I want to make a point of saying, and I think this is important to note, we put out a statement last week asking for fans to come forward and help us deal with these problems.

“The response from the majority of the Gillingham fans has been outstanding today, really outstanding.

“Whilst I’ve seen a few people state online that they are `embarrassed to be a Gillingham fan.` I understand that because of that one person but let me tell you, the number of people in this stadium, and there has been people on all three sides by the way, have come up to me.

“We have actually been struggling to deal with the number of people who are trying to tell us what happened, and that makes me proud. That makes me proud to be a Gillingham fan because the club is frustrated and are sick of it, and actually so are the majority of the fan base that are here.

“They don’t want to see it, they understand the repercussions it can have on the club. The majority of people here are as desperate to stamp it out as we are.

“So that actually makes me proud and I am thankful to the fan base.

“That was the main reason I wanted to come on and make that point. Yes, it’s not a great look for the club, I’m not happy about it and I do not want these incidents to happen. But actually, most of the people here, related to Gillingham Football Club, don’t either.

“That was shown today and that’s helped us take action, so I’m thankful to the fans.”

 

The club will make no further comment.