The man who claims three members of the Crusaders rugby team made homophobic slurs against him in a McDonalds in South Africa has threatened to release CCTV footage of the incident.
Alexandros Paterimos posted on Instagram about an encounter with the visiting Crusaders team on Saturday night, after the defending Super Rugby champions drew 19-19 with the home-team Stormers.
"We were attacked by members of the New Zealand rugby team in the McDonald's on Long/Kloof St last night," he claims. "As we entered, we were met with jeering and sniggers from them.
"They then proceeded to record us as a joke (also, upon looking on his phone screen, it was a recording for either Insta/Snapchat). When catching them in the act, they told us they did it because we looked funny to them."
NZ-based management at the Crusaders confirmed an incident took place, but not as detailed by complainants.
"The BNZ Crusaders have been made aware of allegations of an incident in Cape Town, involving some of our players," the franchise tweeted.
"The original post claimed players exhibited homophobic behaviour.
"The three players, team management and the South African-based security advisor with them strongly refute the socialised account of what happened. They are devastated by the allegation and the implication of homophobic behaviour."
The Crusaders contacted Paterimos via his Instagram account, offering to hear his version of events, but he hit back and published the conversation.
"Hi Alexandros," the Crusaders' message read. "We wanted to contact you in relation to the allegations about some members of our team. Given the serious nature of the allegations, we would like to give you the opportunity to provide us with your full account."
Paterimos hit back alleging the teammates were lying about what had happened and adding he was getting the CCTV footage from the McDonalds in Cape Town and would release some of it to prove their version was correct.
"Telling us we are lying is extremely offensive and we will not stand for that," Paterimos said in his post.
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