Crystal Palace have offered their total support after their team doctor and his two children were allegedly racially abused on their way to the match against Bournemouth.
Dr Zafar Iqbal was taking his two youngest children to the game when he alleges a three-year-old child abused them.
Posting on his Twitter account, Dr Iqbal wrote: 'Devastated and speechless. Taking my 2 youngest kids to their first ever game at Selhurst park and walking a few hundred yards from the stadium a 3 y old shouted to his dad - "Look daddy there's some P****". His dad 'attempted to scold' him. Racism is not just a football problem.'
He went on to add: 'I didn’t know how to react. I couldn’t tell off the 3 y old kid. Should I have said something to the dad while my 2 young kids were there?'
Later on he posted more, saying: 'The thing that upsets me most is that my 12 year old daughter came to me to ask if I'd heard it and I didn't know what to say. Should I have told off the dad? I was just gobsmacked. Again I reiterate this is not because of football but a society issue.'
Crystal Palace released a statement following the incident, saying: "We utterly deplore the racist comments made to our Club doctor while he was heading to today's match with his children. It must have been an awful experience for him and his family and this disgraceful incident shows that the scourge of racism remains in our society. Crystal Palace Football Club is committed to inclusivity and diversity and we will offer Dr Zaf our full support if he chooses to take the matter further".
Dr Iqbal was a doctor at Liverpool and Tottenham before Palace, and is a highly-regarded head of sport medicine.
It looked like the unsavoury start to the day had a happy ending as he later posted a picture of him and his two children on the pitch at the end of the game.
