Derby issue statement on sick chants from fans towards their own player

Derby County have decided to issue a statement on the sick chants coming from the club’s fans towards their own player on Saturday.

The Rams have responded to allegations of abuse towards winger Kamil Jozwiak by the club’s own supporters who were in the away end at Peterborough United at the weekend.

A Rams supporters group made the allegations on Saturday night just hours after Wayne Rooney’s side lost to Darren Ferguson’s side 2-1.

Derby conceded two goals in injury time after Jack Stretton netted with 13 minutes remaining to open the scoring.

Harry Burrows then scored in the 91st minute and Siriki Dembele grabbed the winner just after to consign Rooney’s men to a costly defeat even at this early stage of the 2021/22 campaign.

The ‘Punjabi Rams’ supporters group headed straight to their social media, alleging that a ‘minority’ of the club’s travelling support at London Road had been racist towards Jozwiak.

There was also an allegation of homophobic abuse at a Peterborough player, less than 24 hours after we saw and heard a controversial chant sang by Liverpool fans at Norwich’s Billy Gilmour.

“A disappointing result but what was even more disappointing was the fact a minority of our fans made a homophobic slur towards a Peterborough player and racist comments towards Jozwiak,” the Punjabi Rams Twitter account wrote.

“We’ve reported the incidents and encourage others to do the same if heard or seen. #kickitout.”

Derby’s official Twitter account quoted the tweet and wrote: “We thank Punjabi Rams for rightly reporting these incidents and do not, in any way, condone these actions.

“We will work with the relevant authorities to determine who these individuals were.

“Enough is enough.”

Kamil Jozwiak recently revealed to the club website how he is gearing up for his second season at Derby County – and he is determined to hit the ground running.

The 23-year-old arrived at Pride Park last September from Polish side Lech Poznan for an undisclosed fee.

The Poland international earned himself 41 appearances in all competitions last term for Derby, scoring once.

He said: “For me and the team, last season was not the best one.

“I hope this second season will be easier for me and the team. I have the experience from my first season; I know the team better and they know me better.

“I think we can get good results in the season.”

Jozwiak’s time at the Euros was short-lived after suffering defeats to Slovakia and Sweden, with a 1-1 draw against Spain in-between, meaning that Poland did not progress beyond the group stage.

Despite the disappointment, Jozwiak, who started all three games and registered an assist against Spain, enjoyed being part of a major tournament for the first time.

He said: “For sure it was a good experience for me but as a team we were disappointed with the results.

“We aimed for higher than this. We had a red card in the defeat to Slovakia and then a very good match with Spain and a defeat against Sweden.

“It was the first big tournament for me and a good experience. I know it will be good for me in the future and hopefully I will play at more tournaments with Poland, but with better results.”

Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney insists that Derby County “can’t afford” to let players leave the club amid speculation surrounding Kamil Jozwiak’s future at the club.

Reports from Turkey have loosely linked the player with a move away from Derby, with Galatasaray said to be interested.

But speaking before of his side’s Carabao Cup clash with Salford City, Rooney spoke about Jozwiak’s future at the club, insisting that it was the first he had heard of Gala’s interest in the player.

“We can’t afford for players to be leaving the club. To be honest, this is the first I’ve heard of interest in Kamil. But we need players coming in, not going out.”

Rooney also added that Jozwiak “wasn’t really ready” to start the Championship opener against Reading, but needed him to given the lack of depth in Derby’s squad.

Fans have reacted on Twitter as Derby issue a statement on the sick chants from fans towards their own player and a Peterborough footballer…

@shifnalram: Very disappointing to hear. Certainly will do the same if i heard it. Well done. Neither has any place in any sport

@KerryAngie: Always the right thing to do. We WILL weed them out. I like to think they are a very small minority at Derby but one is one too many.

@lukeshemilt: That’s wank. Keep up the good work 👍

@hamrerhippyer: Vile 🤮 it’s 2021 for crying out loud

@edwardsjasonc: Thanks for reporting. I hope the club will take firm and appropriate action.

@WestSussexRam: Really disappointing to hear about that. Just not acceptable

@RobertDeSilva8: Sad… no place for this…. EVER!!

@Garry44665335: Well done….this kind of reprehensible behaviour cannot be tolerated in any situation..

@paulasaffs: I despair. Thanks for reporting.

@DraycottPaul: Thank you for reporting and calling it out. It’s completely unacceptable and sickening. We have to own our issues as a club and fan base in order to get rid of it #KickItOut

@ktownniko: When the going gets tough, people often show their true colours. No place for that at all 😔

@DaiCapp: Thanks for reporting – disgraceful behaviour that needs stamping out… hopefully bans incoming for those responsible.

@DcfcHub: Top class for standing up against our own. No matter how frustrated you are, discriminating someone is never the issue.

@NickyjaneR: So glad you’ve done this. It’s vital we all make it clear that these types of slurs are not acceptable.

@KSquires37: Report them all if people cannot be critical without turning towards racism then they need to be rooted out. Jozwiak is not good enough has been poor since he arrived with us but you can say that without being nasty.

@Matt_Roper80: Damn right, I don’t want fans like that as part of my club

@jxe_l: a man behind me kept saying faggot. i mean i’m supposed to suck it up etc etc but it rlly does annoy me; i haven’t heard that word in a serious manor since i was bullied at school. not good tbh

@mattharvey07: I fear this will only get worse the longer this season goes on. There’s a good bunch of fans on here but there’s a lot of morons too that aren’t. As this season gets worse, the “get behind the lads” vibe will be replaced by anger and frustration.

@gcw047: Every fan hurts (and player) after a loss, but come on this is not on.

@MikeKnott10: The only way to try and stop it is to report to nearest steward, have the perpetrators evicted from the stadium after being handed over to police to record that person’s details and photo then have info passed to all other ground’s so as they have no platform to spout thier bile

@timbooth66: A big reason why I stopped doing away games, which I used to prefer to home matches. In between the amazing fans were spattered groups of utter morons that I probably wouldn’t have had to sit near at PP. I just got fed up with it.

@HiltonRam1: No need at all, well done in reporting it

@hillyer_louise: Please remove them from my football club.

@dcfccortex: Lifetime bans. And name them.

@Kingkennyl: Well done for reporting, let’s get these bigots out of our club unless they want to be educated

@Reached: That’s disgraceful – hope the culprits are identified and banned.

@noles1982: Some of our fans are proper dicks!!

@LiamSpare: There’s always got to be some people that take it too far. Yes Jozwiak was at fault but it’s football. Shit happens.