MANCHESTER UNITED MIDFIELDER Paul Pogba has, after his penalty miss in a Premier League clash with Wolves, become the latest player to be subjected to racist abuse online.
The France international spurned the opportunity to earn the Red Devils all three points during a trip to Molineux.
He was given the chance to fire Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side in front from the spot on Monday, but saw an effort from 12 yards saved by Rui Patricio.
The game in the West Midlands ended 1-1, with Ruben Neves cancelling out Anthony Martial’s opener.
Pogba stepping up for penalty duty was questioned by plenty on the night, but some criticism on social media took the argument too far.
In what is becoming an alarmingly common occurrence, the World Cup winner found himself the target of vile comments from trolls.
He is the third player in the space of a week to have faced such insults.
On Sunday, Reading striker Yakou Meite called out his abusers after seeing a penalty saved in an outing for the Championship side against Cardiff.
He had stepped off the bench for the Royals before missing a 91st-minute effort.
Prior to that, Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham also suffered racist abuse after failing from the spot.
The England international missed the decisive penalty in the Blues’ Uefa Super Cup meeting with domestic rivals Liverpool.
Frank Lampard condemned the abuse his frontman faced, with the Chelsea manager left “disgusted” by the actions of some so-called fans.
The Blues also spoke out as a collective in a statement which slammed the “abhorrent posts”.
Lampard has called for social media companies such as Twitter to do more when it comes to policing the comments that appear on their platforms.
Many of those which appeared on Monday in relation to Pogba have since been deleted, while a number of accounts have been taken down.
United have spoken out on the incidents, though, saying in a statement to the BBC: “Everyone at Manchester United is disgusted by the racial abuse aimed at Paul Pogba last night and we utterly condemn it.
“The individuals who expressed these views do not represent the values of our great club and it is encouraging to see the vast majority of our fans condemn this on social media also.
“Manchester United has zero tolerance of any form of racism or discrimination and a long-standing commitment to campaigning against it through our #AllRedAllEqual initiative.
We will work to identify the few involved in these incidents and take the strongest course of action available to us. We also encourage social media companies to take action in these cases.
Twitter’s terms and conditions claim that action will be taken “against behaviour that targets individuals with hateful conduct”.
The general consensus is, however, that much more needs to be done in an effort to rid football and wider society of racism and other forms of prejudice.
Anti-racism charity Kick It Out revealed in a report made public in July that reports of racist abuse increased during the 2018-19 campaign by 43 per cent from 192 cases to 274.
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