London, November 1 (BNA) Crystal Palace striker Wilfried Zaha has been subjected to online racist abuse and the 28-year-old shared screenshots of some comments after Saturday’s 2-0 win over Manchester City in the English Premier League.
Zaha, who scored the opening goal of the match at the Etihad Stadium, was brought down by Aymeric Laporte which resulted in the City defender receiving a straight red card in injury time in the first half, Reuters reported.
The Ivory Coast international, who had previously been targeted online, posted pictures of the racist messages he received on Instagram after the match and asked social media companies to take the issue seriously.
“This message is not for me from receiving a million messages saying ‘we stand with you’ and ‘this is disgusting’ or about my sympathy,” Zaha wrote on Instagram. “I’m not here because of all this nonsense that is done instead of fixing the actual problem.
“I don’t mind offending because nowadays it comes with doing the job I do although it’s no excuse but my color will always be the real problem but it’s okay because I’ll always be black and proud.
“Talk to me when you take this problem seriously.”
Facebook, which owns Instagram, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Several players have been subjected to online racist abuse in recent months, particularly in the Premier League, and English football has urged social media companies to do more to tackle the problem.
Instagram had earlier announced new measures, and Twitter pledged to continue its efforts after taking action on football-related abuse cases in Britain.
Earlier this year, Zaha said he would stop “kneeling” before matches as part of English football’s campaign against racism because he believed the meaning of the “insulting” gesture had been lost.