Luton reveal striker Adebayo suffered 'vile' racist abuse following Tottenham defeat

Luton have revealed that striker Elijah Adebayo was subjected to further ‘vile’ online racist abuse following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur.

The forward was part of a Town side who pushed the new league leaders all the way, particularly in the second half, only to come away with nothing following Micky van den Ven’s 53rd minute goal.

Since then though, the Hatters have stated the 25-year-old forward was targeted on social media, the incident coming in a week in which the club participated in the Premier League’s No Room for Racism campaign, with their players taking the knee before kick-off at the weekend, while duo Chiedozie Ogbene and Marvelous Nakamba visited Stopsley Community Primary School as part of a workshop put on by the Luton Town Community Trust on the subject of racism.

A statement on Luton’s official website said: “Despite all this magnificent work to highlight the diversity we have in our town and in our changing room... it’s still happening.

“Racist abuse is still happening.

“It is still happening in 2023.

“Ironically it is happening on a weekend designated to highlight the campaign.

“On Monday, we reported and assisted with yet another vile, cowardly act of online abuse from an account underneath an Instagram post after Saturday’s game directed towards our striker Elijah Adebayo.

“Just as it was dealt with the numerous times it has already happened to several of our players in the past 12 months, the post has been reported by us to Instagram’s parent company, Meta, and the Premier League. Bedfordshire Police have also been made aware of the comments.”

Having received racist abuse in the past, Adebayo himself has declared he is so ‘tired’ of such discrimination that he doesn’t report it to the authorities anymore.

The Hatters have decided to act though, with the statement adding: “We have spoken to Elijah to offer him our support.

“But do you know what the sad thing is?

"He said it’s happened so many times now that he can’t be bothered to report or respond to discrimination anymore. He’s tired of it.

“We are now treating this as abuse against the Club.

“We have had enough of saying enough is enough.

“So we will continue to fight against this heinous, obnoxious, narrow-minded and bigoted behaviour.

“We will, of course, always stand up for anyone at Luton Town who suffers at the hands of such backward and utterly deplorable attitudes.

“We will continue to do our bit. For everyone.

“If you see any form of racist abuse, report it to us. Our email is myvoice@lutontown.co.uk.”