WES Foderingham has spoken of his disgust at the actions of the Rangers supporter who tarnished the club’s reputation by aiming racist abuse at Scott Sinclair during last month’s Old Firm game and praised the club for taking swift action to address the problem.
The Ibrox side have handed indefinite bans not just to both Paul Kenny, who admitted making monkey gestures in the direction of the Celtic player – from behind Foderingham’s goal – after he scored the opening goal, and David McLellan, who ran on to the field at the same time to confront Scott Brown, but also to the season ticket holders who had secured them the tickets.
Speaking at an anti-discrimination workshop to local schoolchildren from St Saviour’s Primary School, Foderingham – who suffered racist abuse in a match with Swindon Town in 2012 – offered his support to Sinclair and said anyone guilty of racism was dragging the club’s name through the mud.
“I didn’t know about it until after the game and found out through social media and the rest of it,” said Foderingham. “I was disgusted and thought it was terrible. I haven’t spoken to Scott about what happened but I’m sure he’s upset about it. It’s a difficult thing to deal with and I hope he is OK.
“It’s one or two fans who have ruined the atmosphere, they have ruined the game and it’s the one or two who have tarnished the fans,” he added. “The majority of the Rangers fans don’t condone it, Rangers as a club don’t condone it and neither do the players.
“It is surprising to see in this day and age but it’s been dealt with accordingly and what we don’t want to happen is for it to reflect on Rangers in any way shape or form. The individuals have been dealt with by the club and hopefully it’s just an isolated situation. The club does a lot of work in the community to try and raise awareness through the Follow With Pride initiative. It’s something the club doesn’t condone.
“It happened behind my goal so it’s difficult but if there is a bit of hope than it’s isolated incident. It’s one or two fans who’ve maybe had too much to drink and gone a step too far but we need to deal with it and the club has dealt with it.
“You can only hope that in the future we make strides and in the last 50 years there have been massive strides and hopefully that will continue.”
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