Marvin Bartley has called out the "scumbag" who appeared to shout a racist slur at Hibs star Jair Tavares during their game with Dundee United on Tuesday night.
The Easter Road team fell to a narrow defeat at Tannadice but the football itself was overshadowed by an incident late on where Tavares was on the end of alleged racist abuse from a spectator. A clip, shared by former Hibs midfielder Bartley on Twitter, appears to show Tavares being branded a "black b******" as he attempted to get the ball back into play.
In an emotional thread in reaction, Bartley, who is assistant manager at Livingston and also serves as Equality And Diversity Advisor to the SFA, said the incident was as "clear as it gets." And he's called on both clubs as well as the SFA and SPFL to take action. He said: "I tried and tried to convince myself that I had misheard this but after listening multiple times I’m unfortunately right. To hear someone shout this and abuse someone for their skin colour breaks my heart. We’re now at a point where either the authorities do something about it or they simply tell us they don’t care.
"I wish I could explain the pain and heartache this sort of stuff causes but it’s impossible to put into words. My heart genuinely goes out to Jair, all he was trying to do was his job and getting the ball to speed up play.
"There is no chance that the people around him didn’t hear the scumbag who shouted this. I hope the ones who did report it to the club but if they don’t then the SFA and SPFL need to come down hard because this is as clear as it gets.
"We can’t allow these people to ruin our beautiful game or ruin the reputation of a country I’m glad to call home. Nights like tonight are hard to deal with and I was only listening, it was aimed at Jair. If I can leave you with one thing if you still fail to get it, look in the mirror and imagine the person looking back at you isn’t accepted by some because of the colour of your skin!"
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