Southampton Football Club have issued a statement after Kyle Walker Peters received racist abuse on his twitter feed after Sunday's draw at Old Trafford, not only condemning the abuse but claiming this is the 2nd time in 3 season's this has happened.
I have to say having attended the game on Sunday that I saw little evidence of any racist abuse from the United fans at the game itself, although it can't be denied they had a go at the referee and even what they saw as Saints timewasting tactics, I heard no racist abuse from the crowd in the section near me or in the ground in general, nor did i hear it in the streets outside Old Trafford or on the tram back to the City Centre or on the train home.
But it seems that Kyle Walker Peters was the victim of such abuse after commenting on the game on his twitter feed afterwards prompting Saints to issue the following statement.
"In February 2021 the club made a statement about one of our young players receiving abhorrent racial abuse following a match against Manchester United.
More than two years on, we find ourselves in the exact same position: disgusted and disappointed in the behaviour of those online who lower themselves to abusing players for the colour of their skin.
What is equally frustrating is the lack of meaningful action in those two years from the social media platforms who allow such hatred to breed and fester.
As we have said before, Southampton Football Club fights every day to remove such people from our sport and our community in order to protect our players, our staff, Southampton fans and those football supporters around the world who recognise and celebrate the diversity that makes football special.
We have forwarded the messages concerned to Hampshire Police in keeping with our normal processes when dealing with these cases.
We have also reported these posts to the social media platforms involved.
We can only hope that they finally pay attention to what continues to be a major problem and that we do not find ourselves repeating these words in another two years time."
This was of course disgusting two years ago and remains so today, thankfully racism in football grounds appears to have dwindled since the 1970's when it was rife, whilst it cannot be denied that there are still some racist incidents in football stadiums, they are in general isolated incidents concerning individuals rather than the mass vocal abuse that went on many years ago.
However social media breed a certain individual who likes to post this sort of rubbish, and whilst they are probably Manchester United supporters, they are not representative of the United fanbase overall.
So whilst Saints have to point the finger, and that they are pointing it against United fans, it should not be taken as against all their followers just a minority.
United are the best supporters team in England so it is not unusual that they should have a bigger percentage of racist trolls on social media.
As many know on here, I am not a lover of Manchester United, there are many things to dislike about how they are as a club these days, indeed a fair percentage of their own supporters hate what they have become under the Glaziers, however racism is not a charge that we can find the club itself and the majority of it's supporters guilty of and I think that the vast majority of their fans will decry those responsible and deplore their sentiments.