Aston Villa Calls for Investigation After Ollie Watkins Says he Was Abused by a Brentford Fan

Aston Villa called for an investigation after striker Ollie Watkins said he was abused by a Brentford fan on Sunday.

Watkins, who used to play for Brentford, scored the winning goal in Villa’s 2-1 victory at GTech Community Stadium.

“Aston Villa FC wants to express its support for Ollie Watkins and, with the utmost respect for the big majority of Brentford fans and for the club, we ask the authorities to investigate this incident to find this individual,” the club posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Zero tolerance to abuse in football.”

Watkins, an England international, left Brentford for Villa in 2020 and struck his winning goal in the 85th minute. Watkins, who nodded home Ramsey’s corner and celebrated in front of his former fans, prompting ugly scenes in the Brentford net.

His celebrations sparked an on-field melee and Ezri Konsa and Saman Ghoddos were shown yellow cards.

“I have nothing but respect for the Brentford fans, I love the club, but there was one individual who was abusing me all game,” Watkins said in Villa’s post on X. “Personal abuse that footballers should not need to deal with. You can have banter, but this wasn’t banter, hence my celebration.”

Watkins said he still loved Brentford, where he spent three seasons, but his reaction was directed at “one person who was abusing me all game”.

“I feel like I’ve done so much for the club and they’ve done so much for me; football’s football and you can have a bit of banter but not when it’s personal,” Watkins told Sky Sports.

Neither Watkins nor Villa described the nature of the alleged abuse.

Brentford manager Thomas Frank later described Watkins as “a top person of top integrity.”

Both Brentford and Villa had players sent off, with Ben Mee red carded in the 71st and Boubacar Kamara shown red in stoppage time.

(With inputs from Agencies)