Croydon police have confirmed that they will not be taking any action against the Crystal Palace fans who raised a banner in protest of the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Police were notified of the banner shortly after its presentation in the Holmesdale End, and tweeted that they would be looking into the matter and that “any allegations of racist abuse will be taken very seriously.”
Palace privately confirmed that they would co-operate with the police on the matter, and that they had no prior knowledge of the banner being brought into the ground before kick-off.
On Monday, the official Twitter account for the Croydon Metropolitan Police service issued a statement announcing that no further action would take place.
“On Saturday 23 October, a member of the public contacted the police to raise concerns about a banner displayed at the Crystal Palace vs Newcastle match at Selhurst Park,” the statement read.
“Following an assessment, officers have concluded that no offences have been committed. No further action will be taken.”
The police's decision to look into the matter in the first place had already been criticised by several people online, with Sunder Katwala, director of racial equality think tank British Future, arguing that the police's involvement undermined football's wider efforts to stamp out racist abuse.
"The police should be able to establish that there's nothing to investigate. It's a cartoon of an identifiable individual," he said.
"It's a robust condemnation of the Saudi regime and the murder of a journalist and a criticism of the Saudi state. That's political speech. I don't think a criticism of the ruler of Saudi Arabia can be said to be racist abuse."
