Belgian side KV Mechelen are investigating an incident in which a fan spat on Kenyan international and KAA Gent defender Joseph Okumu as Gent beat Mechelen 2-1 in the second leg of the Europa Conference League Playoff on Tuesday night.The Kenyan had started the match on the bench and only came on in the 67th minute to replace Andreas Hanche-Olsen in defense before the barbaric ordeal unfolded.De beelden van een persoon in Vak I die spuwt in de richting van een speler van de bezoekende ploeg hebben ons bereikt. Laat ons duidelijk zijn, dit hoort niet thuis in ons stadion, in geen enkel voetbalstadion. (1/2)— KV Mechelen (@kvmechelen) May 10, 2022 In a statement, Mechelen condemned the incident and said that they have already provided footage capturing the incident to the security team, noting that they would be following up on the matter.”The images of a person in Box I spitting in the direction of a player of the visiting team have reached us. Let’s be clear, this has no place in our stadium, in any football stadium. We have provided the footage to our security team. Appropriate follow-up will be given to this,” the statement from the club read.The timer on the video shows that the incident happened in the 78th minute, just 10 minutes after the defender had been introduced, and with his team leading by a solitary goal at the time.Disgusting! A K. V. Mechelen fan spat on Harambee Stars defender Joseph Okumu on Tuesday night during a league match between Mechelen and Okumu’s K.A.A Gent pic.twitter.com/rMq1hADJqT— Ole Teya (@Kevin_teya) May 11, 2022 Michael Ngadeu gave Gent the lead after 36 minutes, with Geoffry Hairemans drawing Mechelen level right at the death. Tarik Tissoudali however ensured that Gent went home with maximum points to continue their lead in the hunt for European action ticket with his strike in the fourth minute of stoppage time.The former Chemilil defender was on target for KAA Gent as they edged out KV Mechelen by a solitary goal in the first leg of the playoffs on Saturday evening at home.That was the second goal for the defender since joining the Belgian side, with the other goal coming in the Belgium cup tie against Belisia Bilzen as they won 4-0.
