Norwich: Fan banned from Carrow Road for racist Twitter comments
A football fan has become the first to be banned from a football ground for making racist remarks on Twitter.
Luke O’Donoughoe, 22, has been handed a life-time ban from Carrow Road by Norwich City, following comments he made on the social networking site at the weekend regarding the Premier League club’s latest signing James Vaughan and the Canaries’ current playing squad.
“After being made aware this morning about the content of his Twitter posts we made contact with the fan involved and he will be banned indefinitely from Carrow Road,” said club spokesman Joe Ferrari.
“We have a zero tolerance policy on discrimination of any kind, which is enshrined in our supporters’ charter and ground regulations, and I think the majority of fans will support us in our stance on the issue.”
O’Donoughoe, who was a season ticket holder for nine years at Carrow Road before 2007, saw his original comments on Saturday night deplored by Canaries fans on Twitter, while football pundit and former player Mark Bright was the loudest in his protests at the original comments on the website on Tuesday.
The ban is the first of its kind in the country.
The Canaries’ actions were also backed by Kick It Out – the national campaign for equality and inclusion in football.
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“Kick It Out applauds the proactive stance taken by the club here,” said campaigner Danny Lynch. “The advent of social media has been key in bringing players and fans closer together.
“Incidents like this, however, highlight some of the issues it can throw up.”
Norwich resident O’Donoughoe has deleted one of the offensive comments, while trying to explain his views to other posters since – as well as offering his “sincere apologies” to James Vaughan via Twitter.
“I know that some of the stuff I have said is wrong…there are comments I should have thought about before I posted them,” added O’Donoughoe.
“In the end I lost my rag and ended up writing things I should have looked into first.”
