Morgan Whittaker 'expected' to receive racist abuse

| 06 May 2021

The 20-year-old scored against his former club Derby last weekend.

Swansea striker Morgan Whittaker says he was "expecting" to receive racist abuse after he scored against his former club Derby last week.

A police investigation is under way after the 20-year-old was targeted on Instagram on Saturday, during the weekend when football clubs and other sporting bodies were boycotting social media because of a lack of action in combatting the issue.

Whittaker, who had never previously been abused, said the message which came from an anonymous account did not surprise him.

"I was buzzing from the game, getting the three points and the goal and my family was down watching the game and I got back and my girlfriend said to me, 'There's been a message sent on Instagram and it's not very nice'," Whittaker said.

"Honestly I even didn't feel anything because I wasn't shocked it happened, I was expecting something along these lines. My girlfriend said it's not right that I am expecting something like that when all I have done is my job. I wasn't shocked but I didn't want to let it ruin my day.

"That was the first time I have had to deal with anything like this. The main reason I wasn't surprised is because it was against Derby. I have been there since I was eight, starting against them I was expecting some form of message coming through.

"It was not a very nice message to see, it was very personal to me about my heritage and where I'm from. It took me back that someone can be so nasty.

"What makes it worse is that it was from a fake account, it had no picture of their face so they were able to make an account in 30 seconds and send a message like that."

Whittaker says that the abuse coming on the weekend when football and other sports were making a stand shows more still needs to be done.

"It was expected. In the changing room afterwards I was showing people my phone because I had some messages saying my celebration was too much and then Jamal Lowe said I would get some racist messages, joking," Whittaker added.

"And then I get back to a racist. It is so expected now, you see a different one every day and still nothing is happening.

"They haven't got tools to protect anyone. If people can make a username with a racist name in it then they are not protecting anyone.

"We were boycotting it for a weekend and it has obviously not worked because people were still sending messages.

"Maybe instead of doing it for a weekend, do it for a month or so because the more money these social media companies lose out on is the only way we are going to get to them."