Jurgen Klopp has called for the Chelsea fans who racially abused Mohamed Salah to be given lifetime bans and branded their actions ‘disgusting’.
Liverpool and Chelsea have worked closely together since footage appeared online on Thursday of six men in a Prague bar singing about Salah, a devout Muslim, being ‘a bomber’.
Three men in the video were denied entry to the Europa League game against Slavia Prague.
Chelsea have vowed to take the strongest possible action and Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, welcomed their tough stance.
‘It’s disgusting, another example of something which absolutely should not happen.
‘We should not see it as a Chelsea thing or a Liverpool thing. It’s another sign that something is going wrong a little bit out there at the moment. It’s still only a few people doing it, but the stronger the reaction is from all of us, the more it will help to avoid things like this in the future.
‘These guys now are football fans, and if you do something like that, you should not be able to enter a stadium again, in my point of view, in your life,’ he said.
Klopp would not indicate how Salah, a former Chelsea player, felt about the incident but he gave his own views, which followed a strongly worded statement from his employers on Thursday.
‘It’s just a complete misunderstanding of how life should be.
‘All kinds of racism are just that some people think they are worth more, more valuable than others. That’s the biggest misunderstanding in the world out there. They should not be allowed to be part of the football community again.
‘They did it now, but hopefully we can avoid someone doing something like this again. Football is very public and we have a strong voice, we have to use that strong voice and show that we all think the same. Things like this are not allowed to happen again,’ he said.
Liverpool host Chelsea at Anfield tomorrow on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy. At the request of the bereaved families, there will be a minute’s silence before kick-off.
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri made a plea to his club’s fans, saying: ‘I think that for our supporters it is a very great opportunity on Sunday. I am sure that the 99 per cent of our fans will have very great behaviour in Liverpool.’
Chelsea released a statement yesterday, warning fans the club will take ‘the strongest possible action’ if there is ‘evidence of any inappropriate or disrespectful behaviour’.
Striker Olivier Giroud, meanwhile, has disowned the men who shamed the club in Prague, saying: ‘Nowadays one time is one too much. So it’s not acceptable, these guys don’t belong to Chelsea.
‘We need to move forward and leave these people to one side.’