Chief executive Ed Woodward will lead internal inquiry in to Torben Aakjaer
Manchester United will hold high-level talks on Thursday about whether to fire one of their European scouts after becoming embroiled in a race storm that has gone to the top of the club.
A spokesman from United confirmed they had suspended Torben Aakjaer within hours of being alerted to a stream of racially offensive Facebook comments in which one mosque is described as a “conspiracy-potential prayer-shop” and there is support for Denmark to close its borders and put “extra personnel on every crossover and exit so all that eastern Europe dirt and sh.. can be kept out.”
Aakjaer, based in Copenhagen, has worked for United since 2011, having previously been at Hamburg, and is a regular visitor to United’s training ground to discuss potential signings. His Facebook account also contains other derogatory references to eastern Europeans, a message of support for the right-wing Dansk Folkeparti’s views about border control and a photograph of six pigs with a caption: “It’s time to deploy our secret weapons against Islamists.”
Another post appears to take pleasure from a newspaper story of someone pouring water over a beggar’s head in the Danish capital. One user questions Aakjaer’s stance and is told: “You must be too integrated in the red Copenhagen mafia if you don’t think all that eastern Europe dirt and sh.. needs a kick in the behind over the border. Yes, in cases like this I do generalise. This is not a hard-working Polish guy on a building site or a Czech taxi driver. This is hardcore gypsies from Romania, Bulgaria etc. And here no mercy should be shown. I don’t approve of violence but a glass of water hurts nobody.”
Aakjaer has confirmed it is his account and that some of the comments are accurate but denied using any racist or aggressive terms, in particular “dirt and shit” when referring to eastern Europeans, and claimed he might have been hacked by “someone who doesn’t like me or Manchester United”. The offending posts were all removed within minutes of the Guardian contacting him and are now the subject of an internal inquiry led by United’s chief executive, Ed Woodward, and involving the club’s chief Scandinavian scout, Simon Wells.
A statement from Old Trafford read: “The club has received the evidence from the Guardian, has launched an immediate investigation into the matter and has suspended Mr Aakjaer with immediate effect until those inquiries are completed. Manchester United is an inclusive organisation and will not tolerate this sort of behaviour.”
Aakjaer had previously told this newspaper the comments had been “taken out of context” and possibly mistranslated. “I do believe we should close the borders, as many Danish people do, but I would never use this aggressive language,” he said. “I would never write ‘dirt and shit’. I’ve never written anything racist and it doesn’t sound like me. I am not racist at all and I am shocked. When I hear this it sends a different message of the person I am.”
On Facebook he can be seen in conversation about the Charlie Hebdo attack when a friend comments that he hopes France will “throw the rest of all that shit they have in their country out”. Aakjaer replies: “Couldn’t agree more. Let’s hope other countries including our beloved Denmark follows that example efficiently.” This was one of the comments Aakjaer acknowledges he wrote, though adding that it was meant about terrorists not ordinary Muslims.
Aakjaer’s Facebook account is also filled with updates of his trips around Europe watching matches on United’s behalf and his visits to Manchester, including lunch with Nemanja Vidic and Robin van Persie, and a meeting at the end of last season with the club’s coaching staff, speaking to Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes about his role looking for academy players.
However, there are other posts stating Denmark should move out immigrants. “If they are taking a Danish job then out, but primarily the barriers should be closed for criminal jerks and beggars and likewise from Romania, Bulgaria etc.” Another post refers to a newspaper story of Caroline Wozniacki, born to Polish parents but a Danish resident all her life, leaving photographs on Serena Williams’s phone after secretly taking it at a party. “Not a coincidence she’s Polish,” is the line.
United have also asked Aakjaer to explain a reference about the story of a butcher who had been sent to prison for selling pig meat to Muslims for years – “So the wise one fools the less clever” – and a separate post in which he appears to mock that culture again. Of the mosque, he appears to state: “If just a single krone of public money is invested in this nonsense they better do as they are told. Or else you simply have to close down this conspiracy-potential prayer-shop.”
Aakjaer did not dispute that line but told the Guardian he denies “1,000%” that he was responsible for all of the comments and denied posting the photograph of the pigs or mocking Islam. Another photograph shows the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, falling over. “Phew, just thought that this crazy lady had converted into this Islam nonsense and was on her way down on her knees to mumble a prayer. But she clearly just fell drunk – fair enough.”
By Daniel Taylor, Guardian
