Chelsea allege that ‘a number of players were subjected to racist abuse’ during an Under-19 UEFA Youth League game against Qarabag in Baku on Wednesday night.
As the senior team took on the Azerbaijani side late on Wednesday night, the Under-19 side was also in action in Baku.
The English side won 5-0 but the fixture was marred by racial abuse, with the game halted after Sol Gordon scored the first goal of the game on 58 minutes.
An individual behind the goal appeared to be exhibiting racist behaviour, with witnesses telling the BBC that monkey gestures and noises were seen and heard.
Players complained to Ukrainian referee Dmytro Kubriak, which led to the game being paused, with the possibility that Chelsea may not play on, but they did and won convincingly.
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The Blues issued a statement after the game condemning the incident and calling for an investigation from UEFA.
A Chelsea statement read: ‘We are aware of an incident during today’s UEFA Youth League match in Azerbaijan in which, after scoring, a number of our players were subjected to racist abuse from an individual in the crowd.
‘Racism and all forms of discriminatory behaviour are completely unacceptable and have no place in football or indeed in society. We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible.
‘Our players have the full support of everyone at the club, and we have raised the incident immediately with the UEFA match delegate and home club. We expect this matter to be investigated fully under UEFA’s disciplinary procedures.
‘We are proud of the way our players and staff responded to the incident on the pitch, swiftly reporting it to the referee, and commend those for dealing with the matter professionally and appropriately in line with UEFA protocols.
‘Chelsea Football Club is immensely proud of the diversity within our team and across our entire club and will continue to work with UEFA to ensure that those responsible for discriminatory behaviour in football are held accountable.’
A statement from Qarabag in response read: ‘We are sorry about this incident. It does not reflect the values of our club. We will investigate it thoroughly.’