Hatters boss hails Luton's powerful message as he feels it's 'about time' football took a stand against racist abuse
Town chief gives striker Adebayo his full support
Luton boss Rob Edwards thought it was about time that a stand was made against online racist abuse received by their players following the Hatters’ emotionally-charged statement in response to the abhorrent insult received by striker Elijah Adebayo this week.
Sadly for the 26-year-old, it wasn’t the first time this has happened, as the forward was sent similar abuse less than 12 months ago following the Premier League matches with Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, only to see such a disgusting taunt rear its ugly head again on Wednesday evening during the 2-1 defeat to Sunderland at Kenilworth Road.
Having reported it to Town’s hierarchy, Adebayo then saw the Hatters write what was a ground-breaking response to the individual responsible, inviting him to Bedfordshire if he ‘had the balls’ to confront Adebayo himself. The powerful statement said: “We will stand by and support Elijah unequivocally. To the individual who cowardly dropped into Elijah’s DMs: We know who you are and you know who you are. You’re not a faceless account, one which we have sadly become accustomed to reporting in recent years.
“But if you have the balls to come to Kenilworth Road and say it to his face. We dare you. If you do, you’ll be faced with everyone at Luton Town Football Club, standing side-by-side with Elijah. Abuse of any kind is unacceptable. But does everyone know that? It’s why we are doing our bit to educate everyone that racism and all forms of abuse is abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Asked for his thoughts and the stance the Hatters are taking in the face of one of the worst traits in society, Edwards said: “When I read it, it made me think, ‘wow, I’ve not seen anything like that before,’ and I think it’s about time. We’re a really diverse town and really multicultural support base and it’s really important to us as we want to try and be right at the forefront of getting this message out there.
"The way that the statement went out and how strong it was, I think it’s really, really landed with people. It’s probably captured one or two people, because we believe in it, we stand together and there is a part of you that wishes these people could not hide behind a keyboard and come and stand in front of six foot five Eli and try and say that, but that’s not the world we live in now.
“We’re a family here, we always say that and we look after our own. We want to stand with Eli on this and support him. Unfortunately it’s not just him and I don’t think it was just him either the other night, but it’s not the first time I’ve been here sat in front of a room full of people talking about this in my short time here and I’ve not even been here two years yet.
"So are we fighting a battle that we're never going to win? I don’t know, I don’t know. Speaking to Carlton Morris about it, he believes that there are improvements, there are changes, but is that just because people are worried about the punishment and not really because we’re making progress with the situation? I don’t know to be honest. It’s hard as a 41-year-old white man to come out and talk about it, but we’re doing all we can to support Eli, he’s fine.
“I do think we live in such a multicultural world, and Luton Town is as well. Our players are so intelligent and especially on this subject matter as well now, they’re really passionate about it and trying to make a difference. It’s sad when you hear Eli saying ‘I’m not sure we can,’ but then Carlton maybe feels that strides are being made, so that’s obvious that people are trying. But this is a couple of times we’ve been speaking to Eli about it in a year, so I think he’s probably hurt by it at the moment as well.”
On just how Adebayo had been dealing with the abuse for what is sadly not the first time in his Luton career, the boss continued: “He’s okay, obviously it’s not a nice situation that we’re talking about. It’s great that you’re all here though as it’s (the statement) obviously had an impact and it’s landed, but Eli himself is fine. He’s realistic that, it’s happened before and it’ll happen again, that’s how he sees it, which is obviously really, really hard to hear as well. But the whole situation is being dealt with very well, first of all by the football club, the support Eli’s had, the strong statement that I thought was a great tone.
"Meta have obviously closed the account and are doing what they need to do and the police are now investigating the whole situation. There’s been another statement from Sunderland today, we don’t know where the person was from, but both football clubs have dealt with it really well. It’s really frustrating, we want to be able to talk about football, but we’re not and this is a bigger thing than football as well, society and there’s a lot around it and how much change we can have.
"I suppose we’re in a position now within football to get our message out there maybe even more so than anyone else, with the reach that all of these outlets you guys have to get this across, it’s really important now that it lands. We are completely and utterly against any form of discrimination and in this instance now, racist discrimination. We’re 100 percent with Eli and all of our players and always will be, and hopefully we can see change.”
Although Meta, the American multinational technology company that own Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, have confirmed to the Luton News that the account that was responsible for the abuse has now been closed, whether he thought more could be done by the social media companies to try and prevent this happening again, Edwards added: “A lot comes through the social media outlets now and I think Meta have done what they can do in deactivating the account.
"When you're in this position as a football manager now, I’ve got to be able to make sure I say the right thing, but I don't know fully what is being done by all the social media companies at the moment. It is the easiest way now for people to spread hate or to commit crimes now because they haven’t shown up in front of people's faces and done it, it’s just the easiest way to hide behind a keyboard and commit these crimes.
"You can’t take phones or computers away from people, but it’s disgusting and it’s hurtful and to think we’re in 2024 now, like I said they’ll probably be another manager next week talking about the same thing and then next year. But hopefully if we keep batting home the right message, the punishments are really severe and we educate people, then hopefully we can make a difference. We’re in a moment now where we really can make a difference and these messages need to land.”