August 27 – Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he was “lost for words” after yet another vitriolic case of racial abuse on social media towards a player missing a penalty, this time directed against Marcus Rashford who fluffed a second-half spotkick as United suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The incident came just five days after Paul Pogba had missed from the spot in United’s 1-1 draw with Wolves. Pogba was subjected to vile social media abuse and there were similar posts targeting Rashford after the Palace game.
Solskjaer called on companies such as Twitter to do more to stop abusers “hiding behind fake identities”.
“It needs to stop. I’m lost for words. It’s just crazy that we talk about this in 2019. We keep having all these campaigns (like) ‘No to Racism’” he said.
Rashford joins a growing list of footballers who have suffered racist abuse after penalty misses, with Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and Yakou Meite of Reading also targeted. Last week, England women’s manager Phil Neville, the former England international who had a distinguished career at United, called on the football fraternity to boycott social media.
The latest abuse was condemned by anti-discrimination body Kick It Out, who tweeted: “This problem will not go away and needs decisive action – that’s what we’ll be making clear to Twitter when we meet.”
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