A 12-year-old boy has been arrested by police investigating racist messages sent to Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha on social media today. Earlier Roy Hodgson was asked in his pre-Aston Villa interview about Wilfried Zaha’s brave and important step in highlighting the racist abuse he suffered on social media this morning.
West Midlands Police tweeted Zaha to say they would look into the abuse and hours later have confirmed an arrest.
The Palace manager supported Zaha’s decision to go public and condemned the actions of the culprit: “I think it’s important [that players and football clubs continue to raise awareness of the abuse suffered]. I think it is being highlighted very much anyway with the black lives matter movement, and everyone seems to be making such an effort to eradicate this type of behaviour.”
Hodgson went on to add: “It is very saddening on the day of a game that a player wakes up to this cowardly and despicable abuse.
“I think it is right that Wilf made people aware of it; I don’t think it is something he should keep quiet about.
“I think it is very good that our club, Aston Villa and the Premier League are doing everything they can to find out who this despicable individual is and one can only hope that they will get identified and they will get called to account and they will pay for these actions.
“There is literally no excuse; there is no excuse at all.”
