Pizza Hut forced to apologise to footballers

There are growing calls for a national boycott of Pizza Hut following an alleged racist incident involving black players of AFC Bournemouth.

The incident was first revealed on Thursday 2nd December, after Liam Feeney posted details on his Facebook page.

Six AFC Bournemouth players visited the Castle Lane West Pizza Hut last week after training was cancelled due to the weather. They were asked to pay in advance of receiving their meal and when asked the reason why, they were informed it was due to "the way you look".

The group of players which included Anton Robinson, Liam Feeney and Marvin Bartley (pictured) refused to pay in advance and the police were called to escort them off the premises.

Anton Robinson told the media:

"We ordered our food. The manager came up with the bill and said: 'Would you mind paying first?` "We asked if that was the policy and he said 'no`. When we asked why he`d asked us, he said: 'It`s the way you look.` "We had a good idea what he was trying to get at. A group of white kids came in straight after us and they weren`t asked to pay before they had their food. The only thing that was different was the colour of our skins..."

Liam Feeney went on to add:

"I couldn`t believe it. You don`t really expect it any more. I could understand it if all young men had to pay before their meal. The fact that there were other groups of white lads younger than us who weren`t asked didn`t really leave anything else for it to be."

Following the newspaper reports on the incident, AFC Bournemouth Chairman Eddie Mitchell released a statement:

“We were all highly disappointed to hear about the treatment a number of players received on a recent visit to Pizza Hut. Our players are magnificent ambassadors to AFC Bournemouth, their behaviour is exemplary and they are a credit to the club. In this day and age, it is upsetting to hear that people are treated differently because of the colour of their skin and at AFC Bournemouth, we will not condone any treatment of people in such a way.”

A spokeswoman for Pizza Hut said: "This incident was not racially motivated. We have recently had a spate of customers leaving without paying their bills, so were advised by the police to ask people to pay for their meal before dining. We have been doing this at our discretion, and in this case the situation was poorly handled. We have spoken to the team member involved and have contacted the customers concerned to apologise for any offence caused."

Pizza Hut is owned by the same corporation that also owns KFC. The fried chicken fast food retailer was also in the news at the start of the year following an advert on Australian television showing a white Australian cricket fan placating a group of noisy West Indians with a bucket of fried chicken.