Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has dismissed the idea of blaming Tottenham Hotspur for the incident and called for those who made monkey noises to be punished.

During the match, which was won by the visitors Chelsea by 2-0, Tottenham broadcast a message to warn fans three times that the game was at risk of being abandoned if there were any further examples of racism during the match.

According to the German, in a four-part thread on his official Twitter account, it was “just a couple of idiots were the offenders.”

The 26-year-old called for the authorities to study the TV footage and CCTV at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to find the people who abused him so that they can be handed over to the police.

“It is really sad to see racism again at a football match, but I think it’s very important to talk about it in public,” he wrote on his Twitter account. “If not, it will be forgotten again in a couple of days (as always).

“I don’t want to involve Tottenham as an entire club into this situation as I know that just a couple of idiots were the offenders. I got a lot of supportive messages on social media from Spurs fans as well in the last hours – thank you a lot for this.

“I really hope that the offenders will be found and punished soon, and in such a modern football ground like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with dozens of TV and security cameras, it must be possible to find and subsequently punish them.

“If not, then there must have been witnesses in the stadium who saw and heard the incident. It’s just such a shame that racism still exists in 2019. When will this nonsense stop?”

🗣 Azpilicueta: "Rudiger came to me and told me he was listening to racist songs towards him so I reported it to the referee.

"We are very concerned and aware of this behaviour. I hope we eradicate it as soon as possible. It‘s an issue not just in football, but in life." pic.twitter.com/Zb5t2GrKRE

— Goal (@goal) December 22, 2019

Football.london reports that bodies including the Professional Footballers’ Association have already responded to what happened during the match by calling for a government investigation into racism in football.

On Sky Sports, Ashley Cole spoke about his own experiences of racism as a player while Gary Neville and Graeme Souness spoke with anger over the state of the game and its problems with racism among fans.

Photo Credit: premierleague.com