English footballer Marcus Rashford claims to have received “at least 70 racial slurs” on social media. This is following Manchester United’s Europa League defeat to Villarreal yesterday.
The 23-year-old English footballer made the revelation on his Twitter account. He did this a few hours after the game in Gdansk, Poland.
Manchester United lost the match yesterday after a 1-1 draw in extra time. A miss by goalkeeper David de Gea at the end of a penalty shootout also contributed to the loss.
In one of his tweets, Rashford wrote: “For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying.”
He also later explained that one of the racist comments came from a school teacher. The “math teacher with an open profile” had sent him “a mountain of monkey emojis”.
“He teaches children!! And knows that he can freely racially abuse without consequence,” Rashford added.
A number of United players were equally endured racial abuse online after the match. Although a lot of them are yet to speak up directly about it.
A Manchester United spokesperson gave a statement addressing this issue afterwards. They said that the club was “disgusted by the online hate and abuse aimed at Marcus Rashford and other players on social media after last night’s game”.
“There is simply no excuse for it and we utterly condemn it. Manchester United has zero tolerance of any form of racism or discrimination and we encourage people to report it. We also urge social media platforms and regulatory authorities to strengthen measures to prevent this disgusting behaviour,” the statement read.
The premier league has now launched a social media boycott to raise awareness to racial abuse directed at players. This move will expectedly take effect from April 30 to May 3.
In January, police in the United Kingdom investigated online harassment directed at a number of United players. Rashford and two teammates claimed they had been singled out for attack.