WILFRIED ZAHA has revealed sickening racist messages sent to his Instagram account ahead of Crystal Palace’s game with Aston Villa.
The Ivorian winger posted screenshots of messages from an account by the name of ‘jackdolan_avfc’, in which he is called a “black c***”.
Wilfried Zaha posted the messages he received onto his Twitter accountCredit: Twitter@wilfriedzaha
The owner of the account appeared to be an Aston Villa supporterCredit: Twitter@wilfriedzaha
The account is shown to have sent Zaha two messages, one reading: “You better not score tomorrow you black c***.”
The other read: “Or I’ll come to your house dressed as a ghost.”
An image of the Ku Klux Klan surrounding a blindfolded black man and a mocked-up cornflakes box with a “c**nflakes” label and man in black face were also sent to the footballer.
Zaha captioned the screenshots: “Woke up to this today.”
West Midlands Police replied to Zaha’s tweet, encouraging the Palace winger to report it as a crime.
It read: “Hi Wilfried. We are looking into who the owner of this account is and would encourage you to report it to your local police force too.”
Both clubs were quick to condemn the vile messages and Villa vowed to ban the culprit for life.
An Aston Villa statement read: “We deplore the disgusting racist messages sent to Zaha. We condemn all forms of racial discrimination and stand with Crystal Palace.
Zaha took a knee in the fight against racism at Villa Park ahead of Sunday’s gameCredit: EPA
“We are working with the police in investigating this extremely serious matter and when the culprit is identified AVFC will issue a lifetime ban.”
Palace added: “This is an absolute disgrace and should not be happening.
“We stand with you, Wilf, and anyone else who has to suffer such horrific abuse.”
The Eagles boss Roy Hodgson spoke on the matter ahead of kick-off at Villa Park, praising Zaha for making the abuse public.
He said: “It has been highlighted at the moment anyway with the Black Lives Matter movement and everyone seems to be making such an effort to eradicate this type of behaviour.
“It’s very sad that on the day of a game a player should wake up to this cowardly and despicable abuse.
I think it is right that Wilf has made people aware of it, I don’t think this is something that you should keep quiet about.”
Roy Hodgson
“I think it is right that Wilf has made people aware of it, I don’t think this is something that you should keep quiet about.
“I think it is very good that our club, Aston Villa and the Premier League are doing everything they can to find out who this despicable individual is and one can only hope that they will get identified and they will get called to account and they will pay for these actions.
“There is literally no excuse; there is no excuse at all. He wants to put off one of our best players from playing well, but to do it in the way he has chosen to do it, it is totally inexcusable.”
Figures from around the game posted their support for Zaha with football’s efforts to combat racism recently emphasised following the death of George Floyd in the United States.
Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker tweeted: “This is abhorrent, and surely a criminal offence.”
Former Wolves goalkeeper Matt Murray stated: “I credit Wilfried Zaha for dealing with it the way he has.
“He has outed the individual and then passed it over to the powers that be and they need to deal with it. I think Wilf will use it as motivation, show them that he is better than them and rise above it.
“It is a disgrace – talking about going to someone’s house, it is just disgraceful. No individual deserves it and the punishment needs to fit the crime. You have to throw the book at them, also educate, but throw the book at them.”
In May, an Irish teenager was questioned by police after Arsenal and Palace legend Ian Wright shared racist abuse he had also suffered over Instagram private messaging.
And Tammy Abraham was targeted with vile online abuse last night after Chelsea’s defeat to Sheffield United – amid calls for social media companies to do more to prevent racist messages.
Aston Villa and Sheffield United players take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement ahead of first game of Premier League return
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
