West Midlands Police have announced that a 12-year-old from Solihull has been arrested after directing vile racist abuse towards Wilfried Zaha before Aston Villa’s win against Crystal Palace earlier today.
Zaha took to Twitter earlier today to share the disgusting abuse he’d received from the account of an Aston Villa fan, which included shocking references to the Ku Klux Klan.
West Midland Police state that the offender has been taken into custody.
#ARRESTED| We were alerted to a series of racist messages sent to a footballer today and after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy.
The 12-year-old from #Solihull has been taken to custody.
Thanks to everyone who raised it. Racism won't be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/oFxBUvdtV1
— West Midlands Police – #StayAlert (@WMPolice) July 12, 2020
It’s disappointing to see that Aston Villa’s fanbase – who quickly condemned the child’s actions on social media, will now be associated with such a despicable act. This boy is not a real fan of the club at all.
Hopefully WMP hand out a punishment that is severe enough to deter people from aiming racist abuse to others over social media.
Racism still appears to be rife in the Premier League, Chelsea and England star Tammy Abraham was subjected to shocking abuse from supporters of his own team yesterday.
With the relevant authorities taking action quickly, this is a message to all the footballers out there that they should follow Zaha’s example and name and shame these offenders to combat racism.