Exclusive
SAKA SLUR PROBE
Police probe into racist who abused Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka is dropped after X refuses to reveal yob’s location
The Met brought in specialist UK Football Policing Unit detectives to trace the racist
A POLICE investigation into a racist who abused Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka has been dropped because X/Twitter refused to reveal the culprit’s location.
Winger Saka, 22, was targeted with a manipulated image and slur by the yob who said he “needs to be humbled before he ruins this sport any further”.
1
It came after Arsenal’s 2-2 Champions League draw with Bayern Munich in April when the England star went down and appealed for a penalty.
Some fans believed he tried to con the referee by throwing himself into the opposition’s goalie.
Arsenal contacted X to get the post removed but it took four weeks for it to suspend the account.
The Met brought in specialist UK Football Policing Unit detectives to trace the racist.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
They found the account-holder was based overseas but X would not say which country so it could not be passed on to the relevant authorities.
Labour MP Clive Betts, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Football, said: “Simply because they are overseas and X is not prepared to take action is not good enough.
"If we cannot rely on them to self-moderate then further regulation is required.”
Sunder Katwala, of equality think-tank British Future, said: “When the police want to act, it is enormously disappointing if X are refusing to facilitate the effort to prosecute and show that extreme racial hatred should carry consequences.”
Most read in Football
Arsenal said it was supporting Saka.
X has been approached for comment.
Bukayo Saka breaks silence on amazing reaction to Watkins' Netherlands winning goal to fire England into Euro 2024 final
Topics