Tottenham fans double down with insulting chants about Sol Campbell after his calls to ease back

Tottenham fans responded to a plea from Sol Campbell to stop their abuse of him by launching into insulting chants about their former defender before Saturday night’s FA Cup victory.

Campbell used a newspaper interview to implore Spurs supporters to ease back on the deeply derogatory songs they have sung ever since his controversial transfer to Arsenal in 2001.

Speaking to the Guardian, the 48-year-old also revealed that he is still abused in person and has not brought any of his three children to a match because because they might witness the insults.

But Spurs fans belted out the chants last night, including one that said they would party at news of Campbell’s death. Asked about it afterwards, Spurs coach Cristian Stellini said: ‘I didn’t hear this. I discover only now what you said. but I hope it never happens again.’

Campbell said: ‘It’s almost as though people have forgotten how to be human. Wishing and hoping that someone is going to die? And you’re going to be having a party? What world are we living in?

‘I know football has its tribalism but if no one around feels that this is unacceptable, well, we’re in a really sorry place.’

Campbell infuriated Tottenham fans when he left his boyhood club on a free transfer to join Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. He went on to win two Premier League titles before retiring in 2011 after a hugely successful stint at the club.

He married Fiona Barratt, an interior designer, a year later and the couple have had three children, Isabella, 11, Ethan, nine, and Georgiana, seven.

Campbell said the abuse frequently heard at football matches has prevented him from taking any of his children to a game. ‘No, never,’ he said. ‘It’s just the culture around the game. You want to protect them and you never know. I don’t want to go to a match and have someone who is not a fan of that particular club suddenly say something for no reason.’

The continuing treatment of Campbell has appalled his partner. ‘She is disgusted,’ Campbell said. ‘And as a white woman and with the majority of people who are doing it being white men and boys, it’s quite scary.’

Campbell, who was 26 at the time of the Arsenal deal, admitted he might not have made such an incendiary move without the naivety of youth. ‘I was a young boy,’ he said. ‘I didn’t have a family. It’s a different story if I had kids. I might have thought differently. I don’t know. Maybe if I was 30 or 35, I’d have thought differently. But I was 26.

‘That’s not me now. Who stays the same every year or over every five years, let alone 22 years? I’m not 48 making that decision.’

He asked fans finally to give him some respite. ‘It’s a plea. I want a clean slate. Look into your hearts, look into your souls and give me a clean slate. Take me out of the caricature and see me as a human being.’