Oldham loanee allegedly abused by Liverpool fans

Liverpool and Merseyside Police are investigating an incident of alleged abuse from fans towards Oldham Athletic defender Tom Adeyemi.

The 20-year-old was visibly upset late in his side's 5-1 FA Cup third round defeat at Anfield on Friday.

The game was stopped briefly while Adeyemi alerted referee Neil Swarbrick to the incident.

However, Merseyside Police confirmed that no arrests were made for "racially aggravated behaviour".

A police spokesman said: "The force and Liverpool Football Club are investigating following an incident that occurred during the second half of the game.

"The aim of the investigation is to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident to ascertain if any action needs to be taken."

"From my point of view I have not spoken to Tom about it but I know the kid and something has been said," said Dickov.

"He is a placid boy, a kid who has been well educated with a fantastic temperament and has been with us since the end of August and I've never seen him raise his voice.

"For him to react like that it is obvious something has been said but what has been said I don't know because I've not had a chance to ask - I was too busy praising my players.

"He is fine now. He has calmed down. He is a laid-back kid who just gets on with business.

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The scoreline does not reflect the distance between the two teams on that performance
Kenny Dalglish
Liverpool manager
"Our players went and calmed him down and the Liverpool players did as well, which was fantastic and is why they are top professionals."

The incident involving Adeyemi compounds a difficult few weeks for Liverpool, who were without Luis Suarez for the match against the Latics as the striker serves an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra at Anfield in October.

Oldham gave their Premier League opponents a scare when Robbie Simpson fired in from 30 yards, but goals from Craig Bellamy, Steven Gerrard, from the penalty spot, Jonjo Shelvey, Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing sealed Liverpool's passage to the fourth round.

"The scoreline is a bit flattering really," said Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish, who made eight changes to the side that lost to Manchester City on Tuesday.

"Oldham did their club and their manager proud. They created one or two threatening situations for themselves, especially in the first half, so getting back as quickly as we did with the equaliser helped us.

"But the scoreline does not reflect the distance between the two teams on that performance."

gazzyD wrote:I'm a little fed up of all this now, I agree that racism needs to be kicked out of football but its too easy for people to accuse another of racism, and given recent events with Suarez they know it will be picked up on

I commented on the Suarez topic last night as one of my friend works as a steward at Anfield. The only player who has heard skin colour mentioned is the player himself, because he was playing for Oldham he was actually called a manc b@stard

ncfc_Tooze wrote:yeah, I have met him several times and my uncle used to be a coach at a youth team he used to play for before signing for norwich.

invincibleILeak (CL-6WF) wrote:It could go the other way though gaffer, I think that at least a certain portion of the media will label Liverpool hypocrites if they come down hard on the fan after the Suarez situation, despite the huge differences.

invincibleILeak (CL-6WF) wrote:I genuinely believe that Dalglish and co do believe Luis Suarez and have a genuine grievance with the FA's investigation. However, it is how the media is going to treat this incident which I think is an issue.

Hopefully Liverpool FC will come down hard on the fan, as they should do, but the media will then label them hypocrites rather than point out that they have done the right thing in that situation.

johnson2 wrote:Surely Liverpool will let him off. All the lad has to do it say in his culture what he said is acceptable. If the defence works for Suarez then they should apply the rule to others too.