Football authorities in Japan are investigating the latest allegation of racism involving supporters of the J League club Urawa Reds, after a black player on an opposing team was racially abused on Twitter.



The Japanese-language tweet, purportedly from an unnamed fan of Urawa and directed at Gamba Osaka’s Brazilian striker Patric, said “Die, black man.”

The message, which has since been removed, came soon after Patric had scored an extra-time goal that helped eliminate Urawa from the J-League championship playoff semi-final at the weekend.

The 28-year-old player responded directly to the tweet, and called for football authorities to investigate.

He said he had been celebrating Gamba’s 3-1 win and their progress to the J-League championship final against Sanfrecce Hiroshima later this week when he was “dismayed” to discover the “cruel, abusive” post.

“Anyone would be hurt by this,” he tweeted in Japanese. “I’m really proud to be black. My son is black and we are really happy. Only God knows how sad I am about this.

“This is the first time I’ve faced racial discrimination and I never dreamed of being on the receiving end (in Japan). I really like and respect this country. For me this is the most well-mannered and cultured country in the world.

“I hope the matter will be properly dealt with. To the person who has posted this, you should not do these things as a human being.”

Gamba said that it was determined to stamp out racism in the Japanese game. “It is extremely regrettable that this kind of thing is happening at a time when Gamba Osaka is trying to educate people about human rights on a daily basis,” it said in a statement carried on its website.

“Gamba Osaka will not under any circumstances tolerate racist behaviour.”

It is not the first time supporters of Urawa Reds, one of the best supported teams in Japan, have landed their club in trouble over racist behaviour.

Last March, the club had to play a match in front of 63,000 empty seats after a group of fans displayed a banner two weeks earlier that read: “Japanese only”.

The club received a heavy fine after it failed to remove the banner until after the end of the game at Saitama Stadium, venue for England’s opening game, against Sweden, in the 2002 World Cup.

The three fans who had put up the banner were given “indefinite” bans from all of the club’s home and away games. Observers of the Japanese game speculated that the banner had been directed at one of the club’s own players, Tadanari Lee, a Japanese of Korean descent who has represented Japan 11 times.

Urawa was also fined 5 million yen in 2010 after its fans targeted non-Japanese playing for Vegalta Sendai.

Other football fans tweeted messages of support - in English, Japanese and Portuguese - for Patric, who joined Gamba last summer and helped the club win their first domestic treble: the J-League championship, the J. League Cup and the Emperor’s Cup.

One user said the incident made him feel ashamed to be Japanese, but added: The vast majority of Japanese people support you as a friend”.

Another said, simply: “Sorry,” and added an illustration saying “Love football, hate racism.”

The J-League said it would investigate the incident with the two clubs, although it conceded it would be difficult to identify the person behind the racist tweet.

Kozo Tashima, vice president of the Japanese Football Association, was quoted by the Asahi Shimbun as describing the incident as “lamentable and regrettable, because we have made consistent efforts for years to promote respect for each other among all races and ethnic groups”.