An investigation has been launched into alleged racist abuse aimed at former Liverpool goalkeeper Shamal George during Colchester United's FA Cup victory over AFC Sudbury on Friday night.
A spectator at the match was heard shouting abuse at the 23-year-old after he made a save in the second-half of the 4-0 win at the MEL Group Stadium.
The comments were picked up during the BBC's live coverage of the match and shared on social media.
The FA have since released a statement saying: "We are investigating a possible racist comment at the fixture in question and will be liaising with the clubs and the police."
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George, a former Liverpool academy goalkeeper, joined Colchester United on a free transfer in August 2020 and is now in his second season with the League Two club.
He shared on social media after the match: "Good result. Ruined by s**t like this. Honestly, second time in the space of a few months. Bet it goes under the carpet again."
AFC Sudbury have also responded to the abuse and claim it 'did not contain any racial element' - but they say they will be dealing with it in the strongest possible manner.
A message from the chairman of the club, Andrew Long, reads: "AFC Sudbury would like to confirm that, following extensive analysis from BBC Sound engineers who managed to isolate the incident on audio, that the alleged 'racist abuse' did NOT in fact contain any racial element.
"It is however clearly abusive in nature and the club will deal with this is the strongest possible manner.
"We would like to publicly state that AFC Sudbury condemns abuse of ANY kind and any visitor to the club who uses language or behaviour of this kind will be banned indefinitely from the football club.
"We are proud of our reputation as a family community club and know that anybody associated with AFC Sudbury in whatever capacity will join in this condemnation."
An incident occurred earlier this season in Colchester's League Two match away at Barrow, where George was again the victim of alleged racist abuse.
However, Barrow and Cumbria Police took no further action following an investigation due to "insufficient evidence".
George spoke to BBC Essex following the alleged incident back in September, saying: "I told Smudge [Darren Smith, goalkeeping coach] and he said 'do you want to tell the ref' - I said leave it at first, and then in the end he said I'm going to tell him because it's not right.
"The reason I said leave it is because I don't think a lot happens to be honest.
"A lot of racism has been going on lately and I don't think a lot of punishment has been put forward."
