– It’s just to apologize. I am strongly against racism, the player says to Nettavisen.
Former Vålerenga player Mohamed Fellah is accused of racism after a private message log from Instagram was posted on the Instagram account Rasisme_i_norge.
The account has 18,400 followers and has the stated purpose of exposing racism and racists in Norway.
Serious harassment
Pictures of the message log show that the former football profile’s Instagram account mentions the recipient in a derogatory way.
“Your dirty whore”, “Your little rat” and “Your negro whore”, are written, among other things.
The recipient of the messages is 22-year-old Natasha Krogh.
She tells Nettavisen that she thinks it all started when she started following the former football player on Instagram.
– He followed me back again, and we started talking in the DM (instant message). Then I showed it to my friends. Then she said alone that he has a wife, Krogh says to Nettavisen.
Sent screenshot
She describes the conversation as “casual” at first, but after the conversation was forwarded to acquaintances by Fellah, it took on a different tone.
– I sent her a screenshot of that conversation, and then she sent it on to his ex. When she had been informed of this, and she had again told him again, that was when he went into total “rampage”.
The online newspaper has not been able to confirm whether Fellah is or was in a relationship at the time of the chat conversations with Krogh.
Krogh claims a friend of hers has experienced about the same thing with Fellah, but without any of the comments going on ethnicity.
ACCUSED OF RACISM: Mohamed Fellah is accused of racism after harassing messages were sent from his Instagram account
Photo: Audun Braastad (NTB scanpix)
Fellah is sorry
The online newspaper tried to reach Mohammed Fellah by phone on Monday and later received a reply via text message:
– Assume that you called in connection with the post on Instagram. First of all, I would like to start by apologizing to those affected. I, with my Moroccan background, strongly oppose racist attitudes. I have friends from all nationalities and those who know me know very well that I am not a racist, writes Fellah.
Furthermore, he claims that he himself has not written the rude messages.
– At the time the comments were written from my profile, I had several friends of mine visiting. They saw that a message appeared and chose to answer like that, without me having any idea. Then the conversation was deleted and I was not familiar with the details of the content until recently. This should of course have been avoided, and it is therefore only to apologize, writes Fellah.
FOOTBALL PROFILE: Mohamed Fellah is a well-known name in Norwegian football.
Photo: Vegard Wivestad Grøtt (NTB scanpix)
Claims he did not send the messages
The former football player, who has two matches for the Norwegian national team, feels hung up and distrustful of the Instagram account Rasisme_i_norge, who first posted a post in which they anonymized Fellah, but then went out with his name and questioned his explanation.
– When I was informed that racist comments have been sent from my account, I claimed and still claim that this is because more people have had access to my social media at the time. When I then say that to Racism in the Norway group and are not believed in, I feel that they have an agenda that is directed at me personally.
Rejects agenda against Fellah
The online newspaper has been in contact with Rasisme_i_norge, which denies that they have an agenda against Fellah. They also do not believe in the explanation of the football profile.
– We have one hundred percent no agenda against him. What we also want to highlight is that racism transcends nationalities, and the fact that he is Moroccan does not make the matter any better. I think this shows that he has attitudes that must be opposed. He is a young man in a multicultural environment, who knows much better than that.
– Why do you choose to post this?
– Because there is a certain threatening moment and an aggressive tone in the conversation, which we felt was so serious. Both to stand by the victim’s side and to show that this is a normalized thing.
Fellah says he has received a personal apology from the person he claims wrote the messages on his behalf.
– This is a tough situation and I do not want to be associated with such attitudes when I am not racist at all, Fellah concludes.
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