Bristol Rovers is infuriated by racist abuse directed at Shaq Forde in the aftermath of Saturday’s Sky Bet League One match at Reading.
Shortly after the match an account on Instagram messaged Shaq, the contents of which contained abusive and racist language.
Shaq and several other Bristol Rovers players reported the abuse to us and we, in turn, will assist the Police and Meta in their respective investigations.
We will always, unequivocally, stand side-by-side with any victim of discriminatory abuse. The Club is committed to educating on the damage that any form of abuse has.
Shaq is not the only Bristol Rovers player to receive racial abuse, with an incident under investigation only last week. Even more sickening is that some of these messages come from individuals claiming to be Bristol Rovers supporters. Each time, the Club has sought to act in the appropriate manner. As we made clear in this statement only a few short weeks ago, We will continue to do so.
But what is becoming increasingly clear is the same old methods of ‘combating’ racism - the carefully-crafted press releases and saturated social media posts - simply are not working.
Enough Is Enough.
We are sick and tired of racist behaviour blighting sport. Our players are sick and tired of vile racist abuse that is thoughtlessly shared in response to performances in their job. Our supporters - our real supporters - are sick and tired of being in any way associated with those ‘fans’ who comfortably send such abhorrent messages.
We will not tolerate it.
To the person who sent Shaq this racist message, and to any person who claims to be a Gashead and engages in similarly deplorable behaviour, we simply say this:
You are not a Bristol Rovers fan.
You are not welcome at The Memorial Stadium.
We do not want your support.
Discrimination in any form will not be accepted at Bristol Rovers and we urge all supporters to join us in unison with this message.
Enough is Enough.
