Bassetlaw man and Chelsea fan jailed after posting racist and anti-Semitic tweets about footballers and fans

Nathan Blagg, aged 21, from Retford, has pleaded guilty to posting racist, anti-Semitic and hateful tweets about football players and fans.

A football fan who admitted posting anti-Semitic and hateful tweets has been jailed.

Nathan Blagg, from Retford was jailed for eight week when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court today.

The 21-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to seven counts of sending offensive messages at a court hearing.

The offensive tweets were initially brought to the attention of Chelsea by a West Bromwich Albion supporter who complained to the club about a tweet from a Twitter user who referenced Cyrille Regis, the former West Brom and England player who died in 2018.

The tweets had been sent after Chelsea played West Brom on September 26 last year.

Chelsea then identified more offensive and anti-Semitic tweets posted from the account and passed the information to the Metropolitan Police.

The account was found to belong to Blagg, a Chelsea season ticket holder.

Further analysis of tweets from the account, which was set to "public", which means anyone can view this person's tweets on their profile, revealed more offensive material and anti-Semitic abuse.

Blagg posted a series of anti-Semitic tweets before matches between Chelsea and Spurs on November 29 2020 and February 4 this year.

The day before a Spurs match he tweeted “for 48hours I can tweet as much anti-Semitism as I like without being told off.”

Blagg was arrested at his home address on Monday February 8.

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He was charged by postal requisition in September.

Detective Constable Suzanne Smith, the investigating officer, said: “Nathan Blagg thought he could post grossly offensive and abusive messages about other football fans and players with impunity.

“But this investigation demonstrates that nobody can post anti-semitic or hateful abuse on social media without consequences.

“Offensive language and abuse has no place within football, or indeed in society, and those who engage in such behaviour should be under no illusion that they are committing a crime. The consequences of that crime were clearly demonstrated today.“

“Football fans and players are fed up with this kind of toxic discourse surrounding the game on social media and we will use all the policing powers available to us to stop it from happening.

“I would like to thank Chelsea FC for bringing the results of their initial investigation to our attention. I would encourage anyone to report social media abuse to police by calling 101 or tweeting @MetCC.”