Ivan Toney receives racist abuse on Instagram

Brentford forward Ivan Toney received a racist message via Instagram late Friday night.  The direct message sent by a 23-year-old man came after the star striker scored both of his team’s goals against Brighton and Hove Albion to take the Bees above Liverpool in the Premier League table.

Toney took a screenshot of the racist remark and posted it on his official Twitter account on Saturday.  “I wasn’t even going to post this but I woke up angry…” said the player.

Ivan Toney receives racist abuse: Club reaction

Brentford released a statement denouncing the DM.  “We condemn this discriminatory behavior in the strongest possible terms,” read the statement. 

“An attack on one of our players is an attack on all of us.  Ivan will receive the full backing from the Club and from the Brentford fans who we have already seen condemning the abuse.”

“We expect strong support from the police, legal authorities and from Instagram’s parent company, Meta, to ensure that the individual involved faces the full force of the law for this despicable hate crime.”

This is at least the second time this year that Toney has publicly had to deal with racism.  The striker, along with teammate Rico Henry, claimed that their families were racially abused following their club’s 3-2 victory against Everton in May.

Both players tweeted responses to the racist remarks at the time.  Brentford and Everton also issued statements strongly condemning the incidents as well.  

The Premier League recently announced that they were bringing back kneeling prior to match kickoffs.  Beginning on October 6th and extending to Sunday, October 16th, players in England’s top flight will be kneeling to show their unity in the No Room for Racism campaign. 

Players have previously taken a knee before every match; however, a decision was made during the offseason to choose certain matchdays to kneel throughout the current campaign.  This decision was to help create more of an impact during more prominent games.

Photo credit: IMAGO / Colorsport