Singaporean Sikh Referee Calls For Unity After Facing Racial Abuse Online:- A 33-year old Singaporean Sikh referee, Sukhbir Singh after  subjected to racial abuse on social media, has called for unity.

It was reported that Singh while refereeing last Saturday’s International Champions Cup (ICC) match at the National Stadium in Singapore, made some controversial decisions. In the ICC match, Inter Milan beat Chelsea by 2-1.

After striker Stevan Jovetic was brought down by Chelsea full-back Cesar Azpilicueta, Singh awarded a penalty to Inter and the second was disallowing a late equalizer by Blues forward Michy Batshuayi.

Fifa match agent Baljit Rihal tagged Kick It Out who said that it had “received reports from the public on the racist abuse on social media aimed towards Singaporean Sikh referee during Chelsea’s friendly against Inter Milan”. To criticize Singh’s decisions, some netizens took to Twitter and commented on his ethnicity.

“I wouldn’t say I’m affected by it because I haven’t read the tweets, but that doesn’t mean I condone racism. It’s (racism in football) something that definitely needs to be looked into. There should not be any bias towards anyone’s race,” Singh was quoted as saying by a leading daily.

Within the football community, Singh has called for unity and said especially when it comes to sports, everyone should be allowed to believe in what they believe in freely and participate in what they want to participate in.

Sports is supposed to unite people and not divide us, he said. The incident is being investigated by the anti-discrimination bureau ‘Kick It Out’, a move praised by Singh. He added that while refereeing locally, he had not experienced any racial abuse and has “not come under any circumstances where a report was needed”.

SUPRAJA