'No place for racism' in football club

Carlisle United is currently fighting a relegation battle

Racism has no place at Carlisle United, club bosses have said, after a man was arrested over alleged racial abuse of a referee.

Carlisle United's finance director Suzanne Kidd said the club took the allegations "very" seriously.

The incident happened during Carlisle United's home game against Oxford United on Saturday, sparking fears of sanctions from the Football Association.

Four children were recently banned by the Cumbrian club after an opposition goalkeeper was subjected to abuse in a separate incident.

'Paints a bad picture'

Carlisle United's finance director Suzanne Kidd told BBC Radio Cumbria the club was working hard to end the problematic behaviour and reflect fans in their "true light".

"It's not what we want to see," Ms Kidd said.

"It paints a bad picture of the club, it paints a bad picture of our fan base. We acknowledge it's a very small minority, but it just seems to be issues week after week at the moment."

She added: "There is no place for racism in our club, in our city, in our community or our sport and it's certainly something we take a real tough approach with."

According to Carlisle United, the alleged abuse on Saturday happened in the last ten minutes of its match against Oxford United at Brunton Park, in the home section of the Andrew Jenkins stand.

A 38-year-old man, from Cumbria, was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

It comes after four children were banned from attending matches after Port Vale keeper Connor Ripley was the target of "disgusting" comments at a match on 1 January.

Suzanne Kidd said the club was working hard to end the problematic behaviour

Ms Kidd said the club could be hit with more sanctions if the behaviour continued, with potential impact on how fans watch the games.

"Obviously we work very hard to not get to that point, but there's only so many warnings and only so many second chances that the FA are prepared to give us before they look at further sanctions against the club," Ms Kidd said.

Asked what the club's message to fans was, she said it was to "just to stop".

She added: "We have a great fan base and I think over the past couple of weeks we've seen that there is a lot of support there for the club in trying to stamp out this type of behaviour.

"We want fans that we can be proud of, we want fans that other clubs look forward to having in their ground, we want fans that we can celebrate and in return we want to give the fans something to celebrate.

"This kind of behaviour, although it's only one or two at a game, it reflects poorly on everybody associated with the club and we don't want that at all."