Luton Town Football Club has reported a racist comment directed at forward Elijah Adebayo via social media during their Championship match against Sunderland on Wednesday night. This is not the first time Adebayo has faced such abuse; he was also targeted last season while playing in the Premier League, which left him feeling 'tired' and questioning whether to report the incident due to his disillusionment.

The latest incident has been reported to both the police and social media platform Meta, and is currently under investigation. In a club statement titled 'Is it ever going to stop?', Luton Town expressed their dismay: 'Twelve months ago, Elijah Adebayo was subjected to racist abuse on social media. A wave of vile and disgusting messages poured into his account from faceless racists. Fast forward a year later, and it has happened again.'

At 8:28pm BST on Wednesday evening, an account on Instagram sent Adebayo a racist message. Following the match against Sunderland, where Adebayo scored his first goal of the season, the club reported the incident to the authorities and Meta. The statement continued: 'Just like we said a year ago, and just like we will do whenever a player or staff member is subjected to abuse, we will stand by and support Elijah unequivocally.'

The club also issued a challenge to the perpetrator: 'To the individual who cowardly dropped into Elijah’s DMs: We know who you are and you know who you are. You’re not a faceless account, one which we have sadly become accustomed to reporting in recent years. But as if you have the balls to come to Kenilworth Road and say it to his face. We dare you. If you do, you will be faced with everyone at Luton Town Football Club, standing side-by-side with Elijah.'

Luton lost the match against Sunderland 2-1, with Romaine Mundle scoring the winning goal shortly after Adebayo’s equaliser in the second half. The club’s statement concluded: 'We are all Luton and we will continue to support and champion these initiatives until such time that the message gets through to the ignorant minority. But the question remains: how much longer will our players, our heroes – fellow human beings for crying out loud – be targeted because of the colour of their skin? There is no room for racism.'

Source link:   https://www.theguardian.com