Anthony Martial has reportedly become the latest Manchester United player to be the subject of racist abuse after recent incidents involving his team-mates Marcus Rashford and Axel Tuanzebe.
According to BBC Sport, Martial was targeted by racist trolls on Instagram after the Red Devils’ 1-1 draw with West Brom on Sunday.
Martial played just over an hour of the game at the Hawthorns, and police are said to have been informed of what’s gone on, according to BBC Sport’s report.
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The piece also mentions Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger speaking out on recent struggles with racist abuse, and it’s certainly a disturbing trend that seems to be growing at the moment.
Martial has not been at his best on the pitch this season, but it’s hugely worrying how much people now seem to resort to unacceptable levels of abuse due to the cloak of anonymity afforded to them by social media.
Companies such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter urgently need to up their game on this issue, which is rearing its ugly head over and over again.
Troy Townsend of anti-racism charity Kick It Out responded to this story with the tweet below…
Let me break my Sunday silence and just say here we go again. It’s so predictable now, it makes a mockery of Instagrams comments this week.
I wonder if this account will be barred for a month and collect their ‘Insta slap on the wrist’ and ‘don’t do that again’ talk. https://t.co/cq9LW6zRt3 pic.twitter.com/SULZ67YCiN
— ???? ???????? (@Towno10) February 14, 2021