Yaya Toure has spoken out against the racist abuse he received on Twitter.
Toure reactivated his Twitter account after leaving the site for five months, but was immediately targeted by users hurling racist abuse in his direction. The police are now investigating into the matter.
I want those people to understand what they’re doing wrong.
“For me it’s a disgrace to be honest”, the Manchester City midfielder told the BBC. “We need to do something to try to tell people those kinds of behaviour have to stop.
“I want those people to understand what they’re doing is wrong.”
Toure returned to the site with the message: “Thanks for all the welcome back tweets and support. Shame about ignorant minority. #StillFocused”. He posted his first return tweet following City’s 1-0 victory against derby rivals Manchester United and, inevitably, some less reasonable users were not happy following the match.
A spokesperson for anti-discrimination group Kick It Out released a statement, saying: “At this stage we have received complaints about two separate tweets of a racist nature aimed at Yaya Toure and now we are informing the police. Yaya Toure has been on Twitter for a matter of hours and he has already received abuse of an appalling nature.
“We are disturbed by the fact that someone can be treated this way. It makes footballers start to question why they should use these platforms.
“We will offer Yaya Toure our full support.”
