Luton Town have dared a “cowardly” racist to come to Kenilworth Road and spew their bigotry to club staff and players in person after Elijah Adebayo was subjected to online abuse last night.
The forward bagged his first goal of the season in the 2-1 defeat to Sunderland, but while he was playing he received a racist instagram comment, which he notified the football club of.
The Hatters have reported the comment to Bedfordshire Police and Facebook’s parent company Meta, but in an exasperated but defiant public statement have called out the abuser and questioned how longer players will be “targeted because of the colour of their skin?”
And in a statement on their website, titled ‘Is it ever going to stop?’, Luton wrote: “We’re angry, upset and frustrated to report that racist abuse has been directed towards Elijah Adebayo.
“Twelve months ago Elijah Adebayo was subjected to racist abuse on social media. A wave of vile and disgusting messages pouring into his account from faceless racists. We published this story. Fast forward a year later and it has happened again.
“At 8.28pm BST on Wednesday evening, an account in the UK on Instagram messaged Elijah with a racist comment.
“After Elijah notified us following last night’s game with Sunderland, in which he scored his first goal of the season, we reported the incident to the Police and to Meta. It is now being investigated.
“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.
“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’ll be faced with everyone at Luton Town Football Club, standing side-by-side with Elijah.
“Abuse of any kind is unacceptable. But does everyone know that? It’s why we are doing our bit to educate everyone that racism and all forms of abuse is abhorrent and unacceptable.
“Last season, as part of the Premier League’s No Room For Racism campaign, we showed members of our staff the racist and abusive messages our players have been subjected to. This is real life with real life effects.
“Only last week Jacob Brown and Mads Andersen visited Ferrari Junior School in Luton to take part in an anti-discrimination workshop, put on by the Luton Town Community Trust as part of the EFL’s Together Against Racism campaign. We published the video on Wednesday.
“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.”
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