El Hadji Diouf claimed Everton fans threw bananas at him
Outrage: El-Hadji Diouf claimed he was showered with bananas - but stewards and police found no evidence
Everton have demanded a full apology from El Hadji Diouf after the Blackburn Rovers winger accused supporters of the Merseyside club of throwing bananas at him during a Barclays Premier League match at Goodison Park.
Diouf first made the allegation to a police officer as he left the pitch after Sunday’s match but a search of the playing surface and the area of the stadium where the Senegal international claimed the incident had taken place failed to unearth any evidence to support his accusation.
Though outraged about the claims, Everton had initially refused to comment publicly, primarily because of an continuing investigation by Merseyside Police into allegations made by a teenage Goodison ball boy who accused Diouf of racially abusing him. But with the furore refusing to die down, Ian Ross, Everton’s director of communications, has broken his silence and demanded that Diouf retract his comments.
“What angered us at Everton are the allegations made by Mr Diouf in which he claimed he was ‘showered with bananas’ by Everton supporters,” Ross said. “That is wholly false and I would like him to retract that allegation and apologise to the supporters and staff of this club. When Mr Diouf came off the pitch after Sunday’s game, one of the first things he did apparently, was go to a policeman in the tunnel and make the accusation that he had been showered with bananas. We at the football club, and certainly Merseyside Police, take accusations of racism very seriously.
“The police immediately sent someone over to the section of the ground to scour the pitch and we sent club staff to do the same. This was ten minutes after the game had finished. We also made sure by going through the sections of the stadium where this incident allegedly happened. The police will tell you and I am telling you, no bananas were found.
“In the same way we wouldn’t tolerate our supporters racially abusing a supporter, a member of staff or a footballer, we don’t like the idea of a visiting footballer levelling that accusation at our supporters. We moved very quickly and had the allegation held any water, we would have said so and the police certainly would have said but they have confirmed that the only investigation ongoing is in to the allegations against Mr Diouf.
“In terms of Mr Diouf’s comments, we find them offensive and a lot of our supporters have been in touch with the club to say that they find them offensive.”
It was a wholly baseless allegation that was quite frankly disgusting, and we ask him to retract it with immediate effect and apologise to Everton supporters.
'We can only take what he said as a thinly veiled accusation of racism. We are not accusing him of racist behaviour but are concerned about what he said and feel it needs clarification and a retraction. In the past, throwing bananas has been construed as racist conduct, hence our concern.
'I can only think Mr Diouf must be rather naive if he thinks he can get away with an accusation like that in an age when every square metre of a Premier League pitch is covered by one camera or another. Whatever his motive, it was wrong, and he should try to draw a line under it by saying sorry.'
Diouf was last night unavailable for comment and Blackburn declined to make a statement.
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