Bananagate: I'm fruit flinger, admits German

Published on Tuesday 29 March 2011 19:23

IT WAS an incident that led to the Tartan Army being branded racist in a scandal that reverberated around the world.

But the impeccable international reputation of Scottish football fans was restored yesterday, after a German teenager admitted throwing a banana on to the pitch during Scotland's friendly with Brazil on Sunday.

Brazil forward Neymar, who scored both goals in his side's 2-0 win, claimed he had been the victim of racist abuse after the banana landed on the field.

The claim was strenuously denied by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and the Tartan Army fans' organisation.

And now it has emerged the banana was thrown by a German from an area occupied by Brazil fans at Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal FC. A statement from the club said: "After consultation with the Metropolitan Police, Arsenal Football Club can confirm that a German teenage tourist has admitted throwing a banana on to the pitch during the Brazil v Scotland international friendly at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

"The youngster was sitting in the North Bank of Emirates Stadium, an area of the stadium which was occupied by the official allocation of tickets to Brazil supporters, when he threw the banana on to the pitch during the second half of the match.

"The Metropolitan Police is satisfied there was no racist intent and have confirmed that no further action will be taken."

The banana was retrieved from the pitch by Neymar's team-mate Lucas Leiva during the game.

The game's result was overshadowed by the post-match comments of 19-year-old Santos striker Neymar.

He said: "The entire stadium was jeering. This atmosphere of racism is totally sad.

"We leave our country to play here and something like this happens."

Last night, the Tartan Army demanded that the Brazilian player apologise over the allegations he made, claiming they had damaged the reputation of Scottish fans.

Tam Ferry, a spokesman for the Association of Tartan Army Clubs, who attended the fixture, called on Neymar to make a full and frank apology to all Scotland fans for besmirching their reputation.

Mr Ferry said: "It's nice that it's been cleared up and our name has been cleared. The good reputation of the Tartan Army was in danger of getting tarnished.

"We're just waiting for an apology from Neymar now. He might have forgotten about it, but the Tartan Army haven't forgotten about his accusations, so we'll be expecting an apology from him.It's the least the 30,000 Scotland fans at the game deserve.

"We are also now writing an official letter to the SFA to forward on to the Brazilian FA regarding our unhappiness over this."

But fellow Tartan Army spokesman, Hamish Husband, said he believed damage had already been done. "Although it's been cleared up, unfortunately mud sticks," he said.

"The problem is that the original story goes around the world, and the apology only appears in a few Scottish papers.

"What disappointed me was that the allegations were not only made against the Tartan Army, but they besmirched all football fans.

"The problem is these things linger. England took a long time to recover from their bad reputation."

A spokesman for the SFA said it had no further comment to make and it wished to "draw a line under the matter".

The Brazilian Football Federation could not be reached for comment.