A 21-year old man has been arrested in England after ex-Liverpool player Stan Collymore made a formal complaint to police about racial abuse on Twitter.
Collymore, who now works as a football pundit for TalkSport, is a well-known anti-racism campaigner and has received some vile abuse on the social networking site of late for his views on the subject, including his opinions on the highly controversial and long-running Patrice Evra/Luis Suarez case.
Collymore reported two tweets to police late last night and TalkSport were able to confirm earlier today that they read:
“@StanCollymore has anyone ever called you Stan Cooneymore #greatracistabuse” and
“@StanCollymore has anyone ever referred to you as semi pro as in a semi pro coon #neitherwhitenorblack.”
Northumbria police confirmed that they had arrested a man believed to be from the Tyneside region, saying: “Just after midnight, police received a complaint of racist comments made on Twitter. Officers are carrying out enquiries.”
The offending Tweeter’s account was subsequently removed from the social networking website, where Collymore has received massive support from other users in the Twitterverse.
The Collymore controversy has come at a time when the racism issue is extremely prevalent in the English game.
Last night, Oldham player Tom Adeyemi was the subject of alleged racial abuse from Liverpool fans, while the cases involving Luis Suarez and John Terry cases are still the cause of much debate.
