A Black soccer player tweeted out racist messages he received before a game, including photos of the KKK and threats

Gabbi Shaw

Jul 12, 2020, 20:52 IST

A Black soccer player tweeted out racist messages he received before a game, including photos of the KKK and threats

Wilfried Zaha.Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images

Wilfried Zaha, a Black soccer player who plays for Crystal Palace, tweeted out racist direct messages he received before a game against Aston Villa.
The messages included a photo of a Ku Klux Klan meeting and threats telling Zaha he "better not score" or that the sender would "come to your house dressed as a ghost."
This isn't the first racist incident that the Premier League has seen over the past few years, or that Zaha has experienced in his career.
In 2019, Crystal Palace put out a statement that they had taken action after Zaha "[had] again been subjected to racist abuse on social media."

On July 12, Wilfried Zaha, a forward on the Premier League team Crystal Palace, tweeted out a series of direct messages he received on Instagram, from an account "jackdolan_avfc." The "avfc" presumably refers to Aston Villa Football Club, the team that Zaha and Crystal Palace are set to face in a match today.

The messages contained a racist threat that Zaha "better not score" or the sender would show up at his house "dressed as a ghost," called him a "black c---," and also included photos of the Ku Klux Klan and a racist depiction of blackface with a racial slur.

Zaha captioned the tweet, "Woke up to this today." The West Midlands Police's account responded to the tweet urging Zaha to report the incident to local police, as well as confirming they were looking into it.

—West Midlands Police - #StayAlert (@WMPolice) July 12, 2020

Many Aston Villa fans condemned the messages and stated that this one person does not speak for all Villa fans. However, it may point to a larger problem in British soccer culture at large. Zaha himself has been the subject of anti-Black racism before, as evidenced by a statement Crystal Palace put out in October 2019

"Crystal Palace Football Club has taken action after one of our players, Wilfried Zaha, has again been subjected to racist abuse on social media. We will not tolerate this behaviour being directed at any of our players and will fully support them in dealing with such incidents. Any action we can take unilaterally as a club will be taken immediately and we will also seek co-operation from other clubs where relevant, following that we will pursue the matter criminally with the full force of whatever the law allows," it said, according to the Independent.

Other Black soccer players around the world have dealt with racism from fans during their careers. Last year, Business Insider compiled a list of 15 racist incidents that happened in soccer in 2019. Chelsea player Tammy Abraham was called "black c---," and a "f------ n-----" on Twitter after missing a penalty, while English player Danny Rose said he "couldn't wait to retire" after Montenegro fans shouted racist comments at England's Black players.

Zaha's team, Crystal Palace, stood behind Zaha on Twitter, writing "This is an absolute disgrace and should not be happening. We stand with you, Wilf, and anyone else who has to suffer such horrific abuse."

According to the Daily Mail, Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson also backed Zaha and praised him for publicly speaking about the racism he's faced. "It is very saddening on the day of a game that a player wakes up to this cowardly and despicable abuse. I think it is right that Wilf made people aware of it; I don't think it is something he should keep quiet about ... There is literally no excuse; there is no excuse at all."

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