Guiseley AFC would like to publicly state that they condemn the incident of racist abuse that occurred in the 29th minute of Saturday’s match against Gateshead FC.

The incident was brought to the referee’s attention, after continuous repetition of the same phrase towards the same player. Unfortunately, during the post-match meeting with the referee, he was informed of other incidents of repetitious abuse towards another Guiseley player. Both the player and the referee followed the correct FA protocol and both the reported and unreported incidents are logged in the referee’s report.

We pass our thanks on to the officials, players, and benches of both teams for their positive handling of this issue. The Directors of Gateshead FC were made aware of the incident.

The club strongly suspect that the abuse came from a visiting spectator but unfortunately in an unsegregated fixture and without a witness identifying the culprit we were unable to get the offender arrested. We advise anyone who may have heard the abuse to contact either club in the strictest confidence.

If we, as fans and supporters of the club, truly wish to stamp out this heinous stain on football we need to make a stance. Rarely is a racist comment made in isolation, frequently they are repeated, lack of censure emboldens the bigot. If you hear any racist abuse, be it to a player, official or supporter report it immediately to a member of club staff and we will take the relevant action.

We at Guiseley AFC pride ourselves on being a welcoming friendly club, let us collectively make it a positive place for everyone to enjoy their sport.

#GuiseleyTogether