After Raheem Sterling scored a 97th minute winner for Manchester City against AFC Bournemouth on Saturday, the players rushed into the arms of the fans to celebrate. During that moment some supporters came off the stands into the pitch, and that’s when things got a little ugly.
#scenes mcfc pic.twitter.com/9NC5Yl1VcY
— Ethan Allen (@EthanAllen45) August 26, 2017
You can see in the video above that two stewards tackle one of the fans, and one of the policemen loses his helmet. Sergio Agüero picks up the helmet and approaches the stewards, at which point Agüero is pushed away several times by a policeman. Agüero doesn’t retaliate in any way other than a slight push, but he gets a little angry and needs to be contained by Fernandinho. After some back and fourth between Agüero and the policeman, he leaves the scene and goes back to the center of the pitch.
As you can clearly see in the video above Agüero did absolutely nothing to the steward or the policeman, but this happened after the game:
Police have taken a statement from Bournemouth steward who claims they were hit by Aguero in the celebrations, but City believe it's nothing
— Sam Lee (@Sammy_Goal) August 26, 2017
Agüero was made aware of the steward’s accusation, and he quickly took to Twitter to give his side of the story:
Great win today! On this story about their steward, I did not hit anyone, this allegation is false, and the tv pictures prove it. C´mon City
— Sergio Kun Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) August 26, 2017
Sergio is completely right, and the pictures more than prove that he did nothing to a steward or a policeman. After a few hours of misunderstanding and lying, Bournemouth released a club statement informing the accusations have been withdrawn.
AFC Bournemouth are aware of an alleged incident which occurred following Manchester City’s second goal at Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
The club have been advised that due to a misunderstanding, an earlier statement alleging assault has been withdrawn and no assault took place.
AFC Bournemouth recognizes that stewards and police were carrying out their duties in preventing encroachment onto the pitch, with the safety of players and supporters in mind.
The club will make no further comment on the matter.
Source: AFCB
Bournemouth will make no further comment on the matter, but they owe Agüero an apology. An assault is a serious accusation, and Sergio clearly did not assault anyone.
Hopefully we can all move on from this, but Agüero did nothing wrong. The steward did.