Tammy Abraham: Kick It Out condemn alleged racist abuse directed against Chelsea forward

Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham was the victim of online racist abuse in the wake of Wednesday night’s Super Cup defeat in Istanbul.

Abraham’s missed penalty handed victory to Liverpool in the Super Cup final, with the 21-year-old subject to a series of abusive posts on Twitter.

The social media giant subsequently declared it remains “deeply committed to improving the health of the conversation” on the platform after Kick It Out, the equality and anti-discrimination organisation, urged the company to take action.

“Such abuse is now increasingly predictable, but no less disgusting,” a spokesperson for Kick It Out said. “We send our support to Tammy and reiterate our call for Twitter and other social companies to clamp down on this level of abuse.

“This is a call to action – we want to know what they are going to do to tackle this insidious problem.”

A Twitter statement read: “We continue to take action on any account that violates the Twitter Rules.

“We welcome people to freely express themselves on our service, however, as outlined in our Hateful Conduct Policy, users cannot promote violence against, threaten or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity or other protected groups.

“We remain deeply committed to improving the health of the conversation on the service and in that respect we continue to prioritise the safety of our users.”

Chelsea meanwhile expressed its disgust at the abuse.

A spokesperson for the club said: “We are disgusted with the abhorrent posts we have seen on social media. Chelsea FC finds all forms of discriminatory behaviour unacceptable.

“It has no place at this club and where there is clear evidence of Chelsea season ticket holders or members involved in such behaviour, we will take the strongest possible action against them.”

Christian Pulisic said the Chelsea players would get behind Abraham after his shoot-out miss.

Back-up goalkeeper Adrian denied substitute Abraham to seal the Reds’ 5-4 triumph in Turkey, but Pulisic struck an optimistic tone after the defeat and was confident the miss would have no long-term impact on the England Under-21 forward.

“It’s penalties, man – somebody has to miss,” Pulisic said.

“He’s going to get his head up. Obviously it’s tough but penalties are like that. He can deal with it and he’ll be fine.

“He’ll move on, he’ll score a goal in the next game and everything will be forgotten. We’re there for him.”

This is the latest case of racism to surface in the new season after four separate incidents were recorded on the opening weekend of the English Football League.

Earlier this month Fulham launched an investigation into Cyrus Christie’s claims that a supporter hit and racially abused his sister.