Kevin Kilbane, the former Republic of Ireland footballer turned TV pundit, has reported West Ham fans to the FA after they appeared to mock the disabled in a chant about Tottenham Hotspurs frontman Harry Kane.

West HamKevin Kilbane has reported West Ham fans for their chant about Harry Kane [Getty/Julian Finney]

During Sunday's match against Spurs, it's alleged that Hammers fans sang: "Harry Kane talks like a mong and plays like one too".

Kilbane, a pundit with the BBC, was not at the game but was told of the chants by Andy Merriman, a Tottenham season-ticket holder and ghost writer of Kilbane's autobiography Killa. Both men have daughters with Down's syndrome while Kilbane is a patron of the Down's Syndrome Association.

"It was very clear and sadly it appeared to be from a large number of West Ham fans in the ground," Kilbane told the Mirror and the Mail. "This was not isolated to a handful of people.

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"I am sure they understand they are causing offence. You cannot sweep it under the carpet and label it as ignorance. It is visible and clear and, like racist or homophobic chanting, it is intended to cause offence. I want to be able to take my kids to football matches and when Elsie (his 10-year-old daughter) gets older she will understand about her condition and I would not want her to hear that kind of chanting. If her sister Isla heard it, she would be devastated too, as my friend's sons were."

He added: "I spoke to him and he was extremely upset and I felt I had to report it. No family should have to put up with it at football matches."

"It is also extremely offensive towards Harry Kane, who is only a young lad, starting out in the game and who does not deserve that kind of disgusting abuse just because he is a footballer.

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"This is a wider society problem, not just a problem with football, and idiots are using football as a tool to show their ignorance and discrimination.

"I have spoken to the FA and they have assured me they will investigate it thoroughly. In all my time playing and watching football I have never heard this before. Hopefully we can do something to make sure it isn't again and this awful chant does not spread."

The incident comes after a group of Chelsea fans were condemned for appearing to push a black man off a Paris metro train.