Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka has been interviewed by police over allegedly racially abusing a member of staff at Heathrow Airport last night. The Telegraph are reporting that Xhaka was at Heathrow seeing off his friend Leonard Lekaj, who plays in the German sixth division, who was denied entry to his flight having boarded late. Witnesses claim that Xhaka reacted angrily, and racially abused a member of staff by saying "fucking white bitch" in German.
Xhaka was taken to a west London police station for questioning, and disputes the words he is accused of saying and denies saying anything directly to the member of staff.
A police statement read the following:
Police were called at 19:29hrs on Monday, 23 January following an allegation that a member of staff had been racially abused at Heathrow Airport, Terminal Five.
The allegation was made by a third party. Officers attended and spoke with a man in his 20s. He was not arrested. He voluntarily attended a west London police station where he was interviewed under caution.
Enquires continue.
Arsene Wenger is bound to be unimpressed with the entire incident, as Xhaka is not exactly keeping his head down after a difficult introduction to English football. Xhaka was not an automatic starter at the beginning of the season, as Wenger believed he had to be more disciplined in adapting to English football. Although Xhaka has broken into the first-team recently, his discipline has not improved: his red card against Burnley on Sunday was his second straight red card of the season, and will now serve a four-match ban.
