A MAN WHO SHOUTED racist abuse at one of Stoke City’s players during the Premier League match at Old Trafford last month has been fined and prohibited from attending football matches for three years.
Manchester United fan Howard Hobson pleaded guilty of a racially-aggravated public order offence at Trafford Magistrate Court today but insisted that he was not a racist.
The 57-year-old said he was “deeply sorry” after admitting to calling Stoke striker Kenwyne Jones a “black bastard” and making monkey chants at the player from the North Stand on January 31.
He was taken away by stewards at the beginning of the second half and then brought to Salford Police Station.
I have coloured people in my family and most of my best mates are coloured. I don’t know what came over me,” a remorseful Hobson said on the Manchester Evening News.
As well as being ordered to pay €240, he was banned from being admitted to a football ground in England and Wales for a three year period.
