Everton have demanded an apology from El-Hadji Diouf after he accused the club’s fans of racially abusing him.
The Blackburn forward is being investigated by Merseyside Police for allegedly racially abusing a 14-year-old ball boy at Goodison Park on Sunday.
However, the Senegal international responded to the claim by stating that members if the Everton crowd threw bananas at him as he stood by the touchline.
Police and stewards scoured the area but failed to find any trace of fruit while pictures of the supposed incident also fail to back up the 28-year-old’s version of events.
“That is a wholly false allegation and I really would like him to retract that allegation and apologise to the supporters and staff of this football club,” Everton’s director of communication Ian Ross told talkSPORT.
“I don’t think there’s a worse allegation in modern sport than racism and it works both way. At the moment, and from our perspective, it looks like Mr Diouf is accusing Everton fans of racist behaviour.
“The police will tell you that is completely untrue and in such circumstances we would expect him to apologise and retract his allegations.
“We would like a retraction and an apology because they are completely groundless. We find them offensive and a lot of our supporters have been in touch with the club to say that they find them offensive.”
Ross suggested that the club acted quickly to investigate the claims as they take their responsibilities on the issue of racism seriously.
“We moved very quickly and had the allegation held any water at all, we would have said so,” he added.
“And the police certainly would have said so because we work very closely with their hate crimes unit through ourselves and through our community section, the Everton Foundation.
“But the police have confirmed today that the only investigation ongoing is into the allegations against Mr Diouf, no allegations of misbehaviour by Everton fans.”
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