Brentford have condemned a ‘barrage of abusive, racist direct messages’ sent to their striker Ivan Toney following Saturday’s Premier League clash at Arsenal.
Toney earned the Bees a deserved point in North London after Leandro Trossard ’s opener for the hosts. The striker was the standout performer for the visitors as he led the line expertly throughout the game and gave Gunners central defenders William Saliba and Gabriel a tough afternoon.
However, his club have now confirmed that the striker received disgusting racist abuse via his Instagram account in the aftermath of the clash at The Emirates. Toney had previously been racially abused on social media following a 2-0 victory over Brighton in October.
The 26-year-old took to Twitter to share a screenshot of the abuse after that incident, writing: "I wasn't even going to post this but I woke up angry…" The Metropolitan Police later said: "Nobody should receive racist messages such as this. We have sent a message to the victim asking him to contact police."
Toney has now been the target of racist abuse via his Instagram account again. A statement from Brentford on Sunday read:
“Immediately after Brentford’s game against Arsenal, Ivan Toney received a barrage of abusive, racist direct messages via his Instagram account.
We are disgusted and saddened that Ivan has had to deal with this yet again.
We will not tolerate it and we will do everything we can to pursue the individuals involved.
Ivan was subject to similar abuse in October last year, and the perpetrator is now facing the consequences in court.
How many times does this need to happen?
We call on football fans everywhere to relish the competition and rivalry that exists between us, but to respect and embrace our differences and celebrate the diversity that exists throughout the Premier League.
There is no room for racism.”
Arsenal have offered their full support in identifying all wrongdoers and stated: "We stand with Ivan Toney and are working with Brentford to identify those who sent racist abuse. At Arsenal we condemn all forms of discrimination and take a zero tolerance approach. We will apply the strongest possible action to anyone we can identify sending hateful messages."
Kick It Out also released a statement. It read: “We are disappointed to be commenting on more social media abuse but this vile, shameful behaviour has to end. No one should be expected to deal with any form of discrimination, let alone the continued barrage of racism that Ivan Toney has been subjected to. It has no place in our game, and no place in our society.
“How much more online abuse should we ask players to endure before social media companies and the government step up to tackle this problem?
“This latest incident shows once again why social media companies need to introduce meaningful reforms that protect those who play, watch and work in football. That includes a default option for hate filters being ‘on’, meaning people only see that content if they switch the filter ‘off’.
“We are disgusted by this abhorrent racism and will continue to work with partners across football to ensure that swift and appropriate action is taken against anyone responsible for perpetrating discriminatory abuse.
“We urge the government to act swiftly to pass legislation that protects people from online abuse.”
A spokesperson for Meta - the company who run Facebook and Instagram - added: “We don’t want racist abuse on Instagram, and sending messages like this is completely against our rules. DMs are private spaces, which means we can only review or take action if someone reports a message to us in-app, so we really encourage people to report.
"We also help protect people from having to see this abuse in the first place through our Hidden Words feature which filters offensive comments and DMs, and we recently started turning this on by default for people with creator accounts. We know racist abuse can’t be eradicated overnight, but we’ll continue working closely with players to help them use these tools, and respond quickly to valid legal requests to support police investigations.”
Toney's performance at Arsenal was praised by Alan Shearer, who lauded on Match of the Day: “He made life so difficult for those Arsenal defenders today, particularly the two centre-halves, he gave them a torrid afternoon. He bullied them, he won every single header that went up to him. His hold-up play was superb.”
Toney has developed somewhat of a mini-feud with Arsenal fans since Brentford’s 2021 promotion. He believed Gunners fans over-reacted to his infamous tweet on opening day of the 2021/22 season. “Nice kickabout with the boys,” Toney posted after a 2-0 win over the Gunners in West London.
