West Brom’s hierarchy is “upset” with comments made by Chris Hughton after the Brighton manager called on the FA to intervene over chants aimed at Gaetan Bong in Wednesday night’s FA Cup fourth round replay, according to Sky Sports.
The broadcaster claims that Bong was met with chants of “there is only one smelly ******* (expletive)” after appearing off the bench in Brighton’s extra-time win at The Hawthorns.
Bong accused Jay Rodriguez of racial abuse last season, with the Baggies striker claiming his gesture and words were nothing more than him saying the Brighton defender had bad breath.
Hughton now believes that there the FA should look into it: “It is down to the authorities and governors of our game, and what we see and hear, for people to deal with,” he said, as quoted by Sky Sports.
“It is not nice, but the game has done very well in recent years in picking up on anything they need to.”
It is understood that the West Brom hierarchy feel the chanting was abusive, but it was not racist.
OPINION
Rodriguez and Bond weren’t involved in the original tie at the AMEX Stadium last month when West Brom drew 0-0 against Brighton, and that was probably the best call by both Darren Moore and Hughton, so why did they change their minds on Wednesday night? Rodriguez lasted just 45 minutes before he was substituted off, with Brighton fans reportedly chanting “you know what you are” at the Baggies forward and Bong was only used for the final stages of the game. Both managers could have avoided what was inevitable and while the chanting wasn’t nice, it certainly wasn’t racist. This whole incident has been dealt with now and the two bosses must have been hoping that everyone would have moved on from it, but they were obviously wrong. The FA will probably have a look into after what Hughton said, but there is unlikely to be anything that happens from there.