Hibs player 'racially abused by own fan' during Dundee United match, forensic audio expert confirms

Hibs have issued an update on the probe into an incident during the cinch Premiership match against Dundee United at Tannadice on October 11 – with an audio expert confirming that a Hibs player was subjected to racial abuse from a supporter.

Towards the end of the match, which resulted in a 1-0 victory for the hosts, a video was shared on social media that appeared to show Hibs substitute Jair Tavares being targeted by a supporter as he went to collect a ball that had gone out of play.

Former Hibs midfielder Marvin Bartley, who serves as the Equality and Diversity Advisor to the Scottish FA condemned the incident in a series of posts on Twitter, and urged the game’s governing bodies to take action while the Easter Road club issued a statement vowing to ‘strongly support any investigation’ into the matter.

With the two clubs maintaining dialogue as part of an initial investigation into the incident it was agreed that, given the placement of microphones on the evening of the match, the alleged abuse had almost certainly originated in the stand housing Hibs fans, rather than coming from home supporters as had been claimed on social media.

A general view of Dundee United's Tannadice stadium

United chiefs issued a statement saying: “It is clear that the initial media clip and reaction by parties after that offered an unreliable and skewed representation of the incident. As a club, we are pleased that the unfair representation of our supporters has been rectified. We hope that our calm and concise investigation will end a disappointing experience for our supporters who should have been celebrating victory on the park.”

At the time, both clubs also agreed that, while there was ‘no conclusive proof to confirm the words used by the offender… the likelihood is the comment was derogatory rather than racial’.

However, further investigations by Hibs carried out over the past two months appear to confirm that the comment was, in fact, racial in nature and club chiefs are urging supporters who may have witnessed the incident to come forward.

A statement issued by the club read: “Hibernian FC has continued to investigate the incident that occurred on Tuesday 11 October 2022 in our cinch Premiership match at Dundee United. Alongside a number of different stakeholders, the club has been working hard to ensure that a thorough investigation has taken place. To do so, the audio from that incident was sent to an independent audio forensic expert, who subsequently confirmed that the comment made by the individual at the match was racial.

"Hibs have a zero-tolerance position on all kinds of racist and discriminatory abuse and finds that behaviour completely abhorrent. It has no place at Hibs, in the game, or in wider society. Once again, Hibernian FC asks supporters to come forward if they witnessed this incident, so it can be dealt with appropriately.

"Please contact [email protected]. If the individual is identified, then the person will face the strongest action from the club. Hibernian FC is proud to have players, staff, and supporters from a number of different backgrounds and cultures, and will continue to work alongside all other clubs up and down the country to ensure that all forms of discrimination are kicked out of the game.”