Rapid Vienna have issued an official apology to Andreas Weimann and Aston Villa after their fans’ deplorable behaviour during Thursday’s Europa League match, showering him with abuse and drinks as he was stretchered off, clearly in a state of distress.

One of the things I love about being back in Europe, even if it’s just the Europa League, is the exposure to a different set of footballing cultures. I think we were all blown away by the experience in Vienna last year and Rapid’s travelling fans impressed everyone at Villa Park with the level of support they showed their team throughout the game.

The final 15 minutes bare-chested applause, winning or losing, is something else. If you had to break the deadlock over the two ties based on the sheer unabashed passion of the supporters, there’s no question they deserved to go through.

However, sometimes that level of passion can spill over the boundaries of exuberant support into the realms of ugly hostility. Brad Guzan handled the abuse and missiles with calm professionalism, he’s seen it before playing in some of the countries the US national team has to travel to. While we’d obviously prefer not to see our players pelted with objects, we’ve surely all seen worse and I fully expect UEFA to take some kind of action when they receive the referee’s report.

The abuse of young Andreas was different though, that was ugly and unquestionably over the lines of acceptable behaviour. It was personal and it was cowardly.

To their credit, Rapid Vienna have reacted quickly and apologised, I’ll reproduce the statement in full here, I think it’s important to recognise that the club themselves have described the action of a small minority of their fans as “disgusting, unfair and unacceptable” and are clearly embarrassed:

The Football Club SK Rapid Vienna is very disappointed in a small number of Rapid fans, who have publicly damaged the reputation of the club very much through their terrible behaviour.

During the match yesterday the injured player Andreas Weimann, a young Austrian player for Aston Villa, was stretchered off the pitch. On the way to the dressing room he and the medical staff escorting him were spat at, drinks were thrown at them and they were verbally abused. This disgusting, unfair and unacceptable behaviour by a small number of Rapid fans was not just noted in Austria, but also in England.

This is why SK Rapid would like to make this statement to avoid any misunderstanding:

No player or member of staff of a visiting team is allowed to have drinks thrown over them, to be spat at, to be discriminated against or even to be injured in any way. SK Rapid will also take any appropriate, unconditional action to prevent objects being thrown onto the pitch.

In the case of Andreas Weimann these actions are all the more severe, because this player, who is a product of the Rapid Academy, has always stood by the club. He is a Rapid fan and also let it be known that he stood by the club in the run-up to the game. Weimann’s family are all real true Rapid fans, who are members of the club and have season tickets.

SK Rapid would like to officially offer this statement as a means of apology to Andreas Weimann, his family and to the club Aston Villa.

Hopefully we can all appreciate that Rapid have taken the appropriate steps and that the nature of supporting football clubs in foreign countries is frequently wildly different than in England. I wouldn’t want it any other way to be honest.

And we’ll obviously have just a little extra motivation to make sure the ultimate reply is made on the pitch at Villa Park on Thursday.

I’m looking forward to it and the return of some great European nights!