Manchester United and striker Marcus Rashford said he had received “at least 70 racial slurs” on social media following Wednesday’s Europa League final loss to Spanish side Villarreal. The report was tweeted by Manchester United minutes after the game to say their players had been subjected to “disgraceful racist abuse”.
Manchester United suffered a shocking loss to Unai Emery’s men 11-10 in a penalty shootout. Marcus Rashford took to his Twitter handle and tweeted: “At least 70 racial slurs on my social accounts counted so far.” “For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying.”
In another tweet, Rashford said he was “more outraged” that one of the abusers who sent him a direct message appeared to be a maths teacher, adding: “He teaches children. And knows that he can freely racially abuse without consequence.” According to reports the account has been deleted and the abuse will be reported to police by the club.
It is not clear via which platform the abuse was sent, but last month an announcement was made on Instagram saying a tool to enable users to automatically filter out abusive messages from those they do not follow. Facebook, which owns Instagram, “urges” people to make use of the safety features, which it says “can meaningfully decrease the abuse people experience.”
Marcus Rashford has spoken previously about the racial abuse he has been receiving before, but last night was something else. The abuses came following his poor performance in the Europa League final against Villarreal, and the attacker did not record any completed dribble in the full 90-minutes of the game. He missed a clear chance to win the game before the game went into extra time.
The player said: “I’m a black man, and I live every day proud that I am.” “No one, or no one comment, is going to make me feel any different. So sorry if you were looking for a strong reaction, you’re just simply not going to get it here.”