On Wednesday evening, the Nigeria-eligible striker received racist abuse
on his Instagram account.
It came after the 26-year-old scored his first goal of the Championship
season in a 2-1 loss to Sunderland on the same night.
Following the abuse, his club published a strongly-worded statement in
support of their player, almost exactly a year on from when Adebayo was
previously subjected to racist abuse.
A club statement under the headline 'Is it ever going to stop?' read:
'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 (direct
messages): 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 b*lls 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.
'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.'
Luton lost Wednesday night's game against Sunderland 2-1, with Romaine
Mundle putting the visitors back in front shortly after Adebayo's equaliser
during the second half.
The club's statement added: '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.'
0 Comments