Tottenham, Metropolitan Police end investigations into racist abuse of Antonio Rüdiger

Tottenham Hotspur announced Monday that the club and the Metropolitan Police have “exhausted all avenues of investigation” and will end the investigation of racist abuse directed towards Chelsea’s Antonio Rüdiger last month.

In a statement, Spurs said the club and the police had conducted separate investigations over the course of the last two weeks, but both investigations turned up a lack of evidence. Spurs said the police told them so Monday, who as a result closed the crime report; the club has followed suit.

Spurs shared that the internal investigation included reviewing CCTV images and video and consulting professional lip readers, but have found “no evidence to corroborate or contradict the allegation and as such neither ourselves nor the police are in a position to take any further action.”

The club, though, said it “fully support Antonio Rudiger with the action that he took,” who reported an incident to the referee after he heard monkey chants from someone in the crowd. Spurs also said any new information related to the event would be fully investigated.

Update: Chelsea issued the following statement to Sky Sports after Spurs’ statement, backing up their support for Rüdiger and encouraging “all players ... to report racist abuse without fear of doubt or reprisal.”