Luton Town send extraordinary message to racist abusers: ‘Say it to his face’
Elijah Adebayo was the victim of racist abuse last year and the club say it has now been repeated on Instagram
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Luton Town have released an unusual invitation to an Instagram user who they say sent a message of racist abuse to their player Elijah Adebayo: “come to Kenilworth Road and say it to his face.”
The Hatters, relegated from the Premier League last term and currently 19th in the Championship, detailed a private message sent on social media platform Instagram to Adebayo which they say has been reported and is being investigated.
But going further than usual, the club website goes on to direct a response to “the ignorant minority” about how they plan to react to such abuse.
“To the individual who cowardly dropped into Elijah’s DMs: We know who you are and you know who you are. You’re not a faceless account, one which we have sadly become accustomed to reporting in recent years,” the statement read.
“But as if you have the balls to come to Kenilworth Road and say it to his face. We dare you. If you do, you’ll be faced with everyone at Luton Town Football Club, standing side-by-side with Elijah.
“Abuse of any kind is unacceptable. But does everyone know that? It’s why we are doing our bit to educate everyone that racism and all forms of abuse is abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Luton’s statement went on to highlight their involvement in the No Room For Racism campaign last term, as well as a local anti-discrimination workshop recently.
“We are all Luton and we will continue to support and champion these initiatives until such time that the message gets through to the ignorant minority,” it continued.
“But the question remains: how much longer will our players, our heroes – fellow human beings for crying out loud – be targeted because of the colour of their skin? There is NO room for racism.”
The strongly-worded response to the message sent to Adebayo has been applauded by Luton fans, with the nature of it gaining attention on social media.
It marks a turnaround after last term Luton were criticised for their statement after tragedy chanting in their home fixture against Liverpool, which made more reference to the atmosphere and the team coming close to a positive result than the actual chanting, while they also suggested fans “may have taken part without knowledge” of what the chants, relating to Heysel and Hillsborough, meant.
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