Millwall Football Club has issued a strong condemnation following a torrent of online racist abuse directed at defender Zak Sturge.
The incident occurred after Saturday’s 2-1 home Sky Bet Championship defeat against Blackburn Rovers, when Sturge was sent off just before the hour mark.
The club revealed that "emojis with racist intent and slurs about his skin colour" were sent to Sturge from separate social media accounts originating in Belgium and Mexico.
Millwall has reported the abuse to Instagram’s parent company, Meta, and the English Football League, and is currently awaiting updates from both organisations.
In a statement, Millwall affirmed: "The club is doing everything it can to support Zak and his family and wholeheartedly condemns this behaviour in the strongest possible terms."
They highlighted that this marks the second instance of a Millwall player receiving online racial abuse this season, adding: "These spineless abusers no longer fear hiding behind anonymous accounts while directing abuse in the public domain."
The club concluded by urging social media companies "to do far more to stop these cowards from continuing to spread such hateful content online."
Millwall’s weekend loss meant the club slipped to fourth in the Championship table as they suffered a blow to their hopes of securing promotion to the Premier League.
Millwall are now behind third-placed Ipswich Town on goal difference, although they have played a game more than their rivals.
Middlesbrough currently occupy the second automatic promotion position behind leaders Coventry City, and are two points ahead of Millwall.
However, Millwall are well positioned to make the play-offs, as they are 11 points clear of seventh-placed Southampton.
Millwall are due to face Ipswich in a crunch clash at Portman Road on Saturday lunchtime, before the Championship pauses for the international break ahead of the final run-in.
The south London club has eight league games left this season to try and force their way into the top two.
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