Wilfried Zaha: Crystal Palace star calls out racist fan after instances of abuse in the Championship
Wigan's Nathan Byrne received racist abuse, while a Brentford fan was arrested for an alleged racial offence aimed at a Derby player
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Your support makes all the difference.Wilfried Zaha has called out racist abuse he received online from an opposition fan for the second time this season on a day when a supporter in the Championship was arrested for an alleged racial offence against a player and another Championship club reported racist social media posts to the police.
Zaha was labelled a “diving monkey” by a Newcastle fan after the Crystal Palace star was fouled in the box for Luka Milivojevic’s match-winning penalty.
The Ivorian forward highlighted the tweet to his followers, captioning it simply “lol”.
Earlier this season the versatile forward found himself the target of racist abuse and death threats after he starred in Palace’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
“For all the people being racist and wishing death on my family I wish you and your families the best too,” he wrote on Instagram.
“My life is still very good despite your hate.”
It has been a week to disgrace football with Moise Kean of Juventus subjected to racist abuse by Cagliari fans, England international Danny Rose admitting he “can’t wait to see the back of football” because of racism in the game.
On Saturday, Wigan Athletic released a statement revealing they had reported abuse received by winger Nathan Byrne to local police as a hate crime, while a Brentford supporter was arrested for allegedly committing “a racially-aggravated public order offence” in a confrontation with a Derby player.
Kick It Out were forced to release yet another statement condemning the latest flurry of incidents.
“Another week, another group of players racially abused,” it read.
“We won’t stop highlighting this disgraceful behaviour while it remains deeply ingrained within football. We’ll be liaising with the relevant authorities and offering support to clubs and players involved.”
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