Southampton reacts to vile racist abuse against Kyle Walker-Peters after draw with Manchester United

Southampton has reacted to the racist abuse Kyle Walker-Peters was subjected to during the 0-0 draw with Manchester United on Sunday, March 12.

In spite of the draw, Southampton is just two points from safety and five behind 12th-place Crystal Palace with 12 matches to go.

After the match was concluded, Kyle Walker-Peters suffered an array of racist abuse on Instagram. The 25-year-old had not posted for a week, but some individuals went onto his last post to insult the right-back.

Having received an array of racist messages in the form of language and monkey emojis, Walker-Peters was also targeted with other types of hate, which included posts that wished him injury. Comments were visible on Walker-Peters’ Instagram account for over eight hours and were still on there on Monday morning.

Southampton condemned the racist abuses in a statement released on Monday, March 13. It read;

“In February 2021 the club made a statement about one of our young players receiving abhorrent racial abuse following a match against Manchester United.

“More than two years on, we find ourselves in the exact same position: disgusted and disappointed in the behaviour of those online who lower themselves to abusing players for the colour of their skin.

“What is equally frustrating is the lack of meaningful action in those two years from the social media platforms who allow such hatred to breed and fester.

“As we have said before, Southampton Football Club fights every day to remove such people from our sport and our community in order to protect our players, our staff, Southampton fans and those football supporters around the world who recognise and celebrate the diversity that makes football special.

“We have forwarded the messages concerned to Hampshire Police in keeping with our normal processes when dealing with these cases. We have also reported these posts to the social media platforms involved.

“We can only hope that they finally pay attention to what continues to be a major problem and that we do not find ourselves repeating these words in another two years time.”