Premier League player received KKK picture, gets racially abused.

Crystal Palace’s winger Wilfried Zaha was sent a series of racist messages on his Instagram by a 12-year-old boy who was later arrested by West Midlands Police.

On Sunday, when Aston Villa was set to play Crystal Palace in a crucial fixture for keeping their survival hopes alive in the Premier League, Palace’s winger Wilfried Zaha received a series of racist messages on his Instagram by a 12-year-old boy. The boy who claimed to an Aston Villa supporter, racially abused the player by also sending him a picture of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Zaha shared screenshots of the provocative message on his Twitter account.

Police arrests the 12-year old boy:

The West Midlands Police arrested the 12-year-old boy immediately and tweeted,” #ARRESTED! We were alerted to a series of racist messages to a footballer today and after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy. The 12-year-old from #Solihull has been taken to custody. Thanks to everyone who raised it. Racism won’t be tolerated.”

Premier League works to contain racial hate:

Zaha shared the screenshots before the match at Villa Park with the caption – “woke up to this today”. The criminal responsibility age in England is 10 years. The Premier League is working tirelessly to contain such racial hate and has also shown solidarity to the Black Lives Matter campaign by issuing a collective statement with the Premier League clubs, to take the knee before kicking-off every match since the league’s resumption in mid-June this year. A couple of weeks back, during a match between Manchester City and Burnley, a banner flew in the air which read, “White Lives Matter Burnley”.

Premier League and Roy Hodgson condemn the abuse:

Roy Hodgson, Crystal Palace’s manager, lent his support to the 27-year-old Zaha and said,” It is very saddening on the day of a game that a player wakes up to this cowardly and despicable abuse. There is literally no excuse; there is no excuse at all.” The Premier League has also condemned the incident.