There has been some media coverage of offensive football chants about Emmanuel Adebayor that says we did not consider the chants to be racist. This is not the correct position. Nick Hawkins, Crown Prosecution Service lead on football matters, said:
“The CPS has never been asked by the police to make a decision on whether to charge anyone for these chants, which are clearly offensive and have no place in football. The CPS can only make a charging decision if a complaint is made to the police, and if they then decide to investigate.
“Approximately a year ago the CPS was informally asked by the police on a theoretical basis whether it might be possible to prosecute the people who made these chants if a formal complaint was made. In the absence of a file of evidence, we said, hypothetically, that it might be difficult to prove the racist element of the offence to the necessary standard for a realistic prospect of a conviction in a criminal court.
“If a police force investigates these chants and passes the evidence to us, then we will of course make a considered charging decision based on the evidence uncovered by the investigation.”
