Brentford FC were made aware last night of striker Ivan Toney being racially abused on Instagram. Once the Club were told of the abuse, a complaint was immediately made to the social media provider. Individual club staff also reported the abuse and Brentford FC notes that Instagram has banned the user from its platform and removed the post. The Club will also be reporting the abuse to the police and other relevant authorities.

Player Welfare staff made contact with Ivan Toney last night. We will work with him and give him any support he needs. Any steps that Ivan wants to take against the perpetrator will have our full support and we will work with Instagram and the police to try and identify the individual involved, taking action against them if possible.

We were pleased to see the firm response from Kick It Out to the abuse. The Club has a close relationship with Kick It Out, The FA and other organisations that, like us, believe in increasing the diversity and inclusivity of football. We will do all we can to work with them to rid football of hateful and discriminatory behaviour. It is often difficult to identify the perpetrators, but we hope that with the assistance of social media platforms this will change over time.

Brentford FC has a zero-tolerance policy towards discriminatory behaviour of any kind. We reserve the right to take the most extreme action, including but not limited to what is set out in our stated Social Media Policy for fans, to ensure our community is free of discrimination and intimidation. Details on how to report any discrimination seen online can be found in our Social Media Policy for fans here.