Eddie Izzard has said he was subjected to "exceedingly horrible" homophobic abuse from a fellow Crystal Palace fan while he was watching his team take on Manchester United in Saturday's FA Cup final.

Mr Izzard said he was told he was a 'disgrace' to his club, according to Buzzfeed, before other fans stepped in to defend the comedian.

Mr Izzard, a Crystal Palace associate director, said: "I went to the Palace game against Manchester United and someone attacked me and was exceedingly horrible.

"He said I’m a disgrace to the Crystal Palace team.

"I was wearing a Crystal Palace shirt, he said ‘You’re a fucking disgrace’, and I went ‘Hey, what the bloody hell are you saying'. 

"And all the other Palace fans came out and said ‘Hey, back off, man’.

"And I just thought it was actually rather positive, because only one guy was screaming homophobic abuse at me rather than 20 or an entire section of an audience."

Proud and Palace, the club's group for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender fans, condemned the abuse in a statement issued yesterday.

It said: "The cup final was one of the proudest days in our club's history so to have it marred by the incident is deeply saddening.

"We are, however, cheered by the news that several Crystal Palace fans stepped in to support Eddie.

"In Eddie's own words, this in itself is progress."

The statement added: "Eddie is truly 'one of our own' and to the fans who spoke up in the face of homophobic/transphobic abuse we send our sincere thanks.

"We hope that any member of the CPFC family could count on their fellow fans for the same support."

Speaking to students in Birmingham as part of his nationwide pro-EU tour on Monday, Mr Izzard also revealed a man was recently arrested near his home for allegedly abusing him.

The comedian is transgender, not homosexual.