West Brom defender Darnell Furlong hit out at the “appalling” online racist abuse Premier League footballers are being subjected to as he called for action. Furlong believes that “everyone in sport” stands together against racism but has called for “bigger action” from social media companies.
Darnell Furlong said: “It’s ridiculous, we’ve had it a couple of times this season and it’s appalling to hear that it happens to different teams. Whoever you’re playing against – I don’t care if it’s our closest rivals or someone we need to beat to stay up – racism is pathetic. We stand together on racism and fighting against it. If it’s one of our players, we’ll make sure he’s okay and gets through it fine because we don’t have contacts with the other clubs. But sport stands together against it. It’s ridiculous and something needs to be done. I know people keep saying it but there needs to be bigger action. Social media platforms, whatever it is, something needs to happen. It can’t go on. We’re all kneeling before games to spread awareness and we’ll see what happens but something does need to be done.”