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Chelsea fans found guilty of racist violence for Paris subway incident

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:33 p.m. ET

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Sports Illustrated, Associated Press/Sports Illustrated via Planet Futbol

PARIS (AP) — Four Chelsea fans were found guilty of racist violence Tuesday in Paris, almost two years after they allegedly blocked a black man from boarding a Paris metro train.

The Chelsea supporters were all given suspended prison sentences—from six and eight months to one year for two of them. They must also pay 10,000 euros ($10,417) in damages to the victim.

The incident happened in February 2015 before a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain.

Video showed Souleymane Sylla being pushed off the train by Chelsea supporters, who were singing "we're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it."

"That's things we used to see in films actually. I used to hear the story of Rosa Parks," said Sylla, referring to the American civil rights pioneer arrested in 1955 for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger.

"But I didn't believe it would happen to me", Sylla told FranceInfo radio.

Two French anti-racist associations, SOS Racisme and LICRA, were backing Sylla's legal action.

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