Football club sick of 'vile' social media racism

Luton Town FC is calling for stronger action from social media companies after their assistant manager was targeted with racial abuse on Instagram following the recent match against Stevenage.

"As sure as night follows day, a Luton win on TV is followed by a vile message aimed at one of our black players or, in this case, a member of staff," the club said in a statement on its website.

The abuse directed at assistant manager Chris Powell came from a German account and did not appear to be from a Hatters or a Stevenage fan.

Meta, which owns Instagram, said the comment had been deleted, adding: "No one should be subjected to abuse of any kind, and we remove this content when we find it."

The club statement said: "We're now tired of saying we're tired.

"We're saddened by hearing our black players say they aren't bothered about following reports through."

Players including Elijah Adebayo, Gabe Osho, Carlton Morris and Tahith Chong have previously been targeted on social media.

In one case, Meta took down an Instagram account after Adebayo was sent racist messages.

Luton South MP Rachel Hopkins praised the football club for "calling out racist online comments".

She raised the issue in Parliament and asked the leader of the House of Commons to join her "in condemning those who express this racist and prejudicial views online".

Meanwhile, the football club has expressed frustration at the limitations of the legal system.

"We wait over a year for a perpetrator, a criminal, to be brought to court and be fined a measly couple of hundred quid, and not even be given an automatic football banning order," it said in the statement.

It added that the overseas account "sadly falls out of our equally frustrated local and UK police's jurisdiction".

"We're letting everyone see what our friends, our Luton family, have to endure for simply winning a game of football," it said.

"We stand with Chris Powell and all victims of online discriminatory abuse.

"The social media companies need to do more to prevent these people committing crimes via a keyboard."

Meta said it did "not allow" hateful conduct on Facebook and Instagram.

"We remove any language that incites or facilitates serious violence, disable accounts, and work with law enforcement when we believe that there is a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety," it said.

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