‘Is it ever going to stop?’ – Luton Town send an extraordinary message to racist abusers: ‘Say it to his face’ in support of Elijah Adebayo.
A strongly-worded statement has been issued after Adebayo received a discriminatory direct message on Instagram on Wednesday night as the Hatters won their Championship fixture at home to Sunderland, in which he scored his first goal of the season.
Luton called out the abuse by “faceless racists”, saying the club was “angry, upset and frustrated”, asking if the abuse “is ever going to stop?”.
They also called out the cowardice of taking to social media to abuse players, while Meta, Instagram’s parent company, said to Sky Sports News that it has since disabled the account which sent the message.
And while it’s good to see this action taken, so much more needs to be done by social media companies on abuse from users on their own platforms, especially towards faceless accounts. Time and time again they are urged to do more. Yet that remains to be seen.
Now this is how you make a stand against racism, quite the statement from the Hatters, and it needed to be said. If you do anything today, give it a read below.
In less than 24 hours of being published it’s had over 4 million views, 15,000 likes, 2,300 retweets, and that’s just on Twitter.
We are Together Against Racism 🧡 pic.twitter.com/6gRgtyIkUt
— Luton Town FC (@LutonTown) October 23, 2024
STATEMENT:
We’re angry, upset and frustrated to report that racist abuse has been directed towards Elijah Adebayo.
Is it ever going to stop?
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.
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 affects.
Only last week Jacob Brown and Mads Andersen visited Ferrars 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 below 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.
On the 10th of October, Luton wrote: “The past week has seen the Club participate in the Premier League’s No Room for Racism campaign.
The players took the knee before kick-off against Tottenham on Saturday.
On the Thursday before the game, 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. Our 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.
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.
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.
If you see any form of racist abuse, report it to us. Our email is myvoice@lutontown.co.uk
You can also report anything you see and also via the Kick It Out app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.
Here’s how fans reacted as Luton say ‘is it ever going to stop?’ – in a message the club have decided to send to racist abusers, adding ‘say it to his face’…
@cburnhope88: He wont be stood with everyone from Luton Town! He will be stood with everyone in football 🔴⚪️🔴⚪️
@GFD1967: It’s a disgrace that this shit is still going on. I’m so sorry you have to put up with these knuckledragging scumbags when they crawl out from under their rocks. Take care big man. You’re magic you know.
@LostSoulsForEva: What a fucking statement. Cowards like this need calling out. Well done Luton.
@FTM1042: I’m a Sunderland fan and elijah is a very good player for Luton a great servant he is to the club. I’am disgusted personally reading this and I hope adebayo is okay & receives the support he deserves. Morris & adebayo are top players for Luton and I’m just being honest.
@Andysbrett: Why do we still live in the world where utters cunts think this is acceptable? Go visit Eli and say it to his face I dare you! Not only will the club be standing shoulder 2 shoulder but I’m sure some fans might want a quiet word as well!
@FinlayJohn93: It is absolutely shocking that we still have this behaviour. What a statement, though, by Luton. If you commit racism on any platform, you should be named and shamed 100 percent
@Faye_1878: 2024 & there’s still people who are Racist. Baffles the fuck out of me. Big up Luton for this statement.
@kevlennon1: We’re all with you @EliSaint4. Stay strong 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡 Let’s name and shame these lowlife pondlife scum
@DanEvans106: It’s just tragically sad that in this day and age Racism is still a major problem. Nobody should be judged because of the colour of their skin 😡 This is an extremely powerful post from Luton Town and one which is incredibly justified. Harsher punishment is needed #Notoracism
@SAFC_Luke_2703: Vile, class of you to call this out
@cknnr17: Fuck Racism, how people think it’s still acceptable to hide behind an anonymous account and spout hatred is a cunt and doesn’t belong in society. That Luton statement is spot on, we all stand with Elijah Adebayo
@DottieJanes: Shoulder to shoulder with you @EliSaint4 🧡. Let’s hope there is swift and appropriate action taken.
@Mikey_Hatter: My club, saying it how it is. Rightly so. Enough is enough and there is no place for any form of racism not just in football but across the globe in every walk of life. We are all with you Elijah, not as a player of our club, as a good human being that deserves far better.
Your PR agent needs a raise, what a statement 💀 pic.twitter.com/VRIgWwCzFi
— Mr. FPL (@MrFPL_) October 24, 2024
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