‘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.
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