Luton Town have said that striker Elijah Adebayo is so “tired” of online discrimination that he doesn’t report it so the Premier League outfit are treating the latest volley of abuse as “abuse against the club”.
The Hatters have reported a post directed at the forward after he missed a chance in the 1-0 top-flight defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
Adebayo spoke openly about the goalmouth incident in an exclusive interview with The Lutonian, and how he’ll deal with it, but the level of abuse aimed at him has left the club with no other option to publish a statement in a week when the club has participated in the Premier League’s No Room for Racism campaign.
In an online statement the Hatters said: ‘On Monday, we reported and assisted with yet another vile, cowardly act of online abuse from an account underneath an Instagram post after Saturday’s game directed towards our striker Elijah Adebayo.
‘Just as it was dealt with the numerous times it has already happened to several of our players in the past 12 months, the post has been reported by us to Instagram’s parent company, Meta, and the Premier League. Bedfordshire Police have also been made aware of the comments.
‘We have spoken to Elijah to offer him our support. But do you know what the sad thing is? He said it’s happened so many times now that he can’t be bothered to report or respond to discrimination anymore. He’s tired of it.
‘We are now treating this as abuse against the club.
‘We have had enough of saying enough is enough.
‘So we will continue to fight against this heinous, obnoxious, narrow-minded and bigoted behaviour.
‘We will, of course, always stand up for anyone at Luton Town who suffers at the hands of such backward and utterly deplorable attitudes.
‘We will continue to do our bit. For everyone.’
As part of the Premier League’s anti-racism campaign this week, players took the knee at kick-off against Spurs, while Chiedozie Ogbene and Marvelous Nakamba visited Stopsley Community Primary School to speak to pupils who had been taking part in a workshop put on by the Luton Town Community Trust on the subject of racism. If you’ve not seen the video yet, we highly recommend it.
It is also Black History Month and the club’s Community Trust will deliver several community activities and celebrations to mark it.
Towards the end of October, the Community Trust will then bring together over 60 participants from their Premier League Kicks sessions to the North of Luton in Marsh Farm, to take part in a No Room for Racism community football tournament – an event which will be hosted in collaboration with Luton Youth Partnership Service and the TREE project as we foster awareness and solidarity.
Luton’s statement continued: ‘These are all brilliant initiatives that we are proud to support and will continue to do so in the fight against discrimination.
‘Yet. Despite all this magnificent work to highlight the diversity we have in our town and in our changing room… it’s still happening.
‘Racist abuse is still happening. It is still happening in 2023. Ironically it is happening on a weekend designated to highlight the campaign.’
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