London : A 20-year-old Sikh man was kicked out of a queue outside the venue of the Wimbledon tennis championship as he apparently made other people around him “uncomfortable”.
The unnamed tennis lover took to Facebook to voice his anger at being thrown out and claimed it was an act of racism, cases of which have reported a rise in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
He wrote on Friday: “Kicked out of the overnight camping line for centre court because ‘you make some people around you uncomfortable, so we are going to report you and ask you to leave immediately, sir’ “. “Post-Brexit racism and the overt rise of neo-Fascism: Please advice how best to report this,” he said.
The sportsman who himself dreams of playing professional tennis was eventually allowed to enter the ground after re-queuing in the line a few hours later and made an official complaint about his treatment.
“I felt awful. I felt like I should’ve fought and negotiated but I backed down and silently left. I don’t feel like I’m ever going back now. It’s still one of my favourite tournaments but can no longer definitively say it’s a lifelong dream to play on centre court,” he was quoted as saying by Metro.
Dozens of people responded to his post saying he should report the “discrimination” to police. A Wimbledon spokesperson said: “We can confirm that a gentleman was asked to leave the queue at 4.42am this morning (Friday) after a number of complaints from other fellows in the queue about his behaviour.”
He had previously been warned about his conduct in the queue on up to six separate occasions during this year’s Championship, the spokesperson further claimed.
But the youngster insisted he did nothing that would warrant being escorted off the grounds; also, he was not intoxicated, loud or aggressive and had not been previously warned about his behaviour.
