Burnley and Chelsea have both shared statements condemning vile racist abuse suffered by Hannibal Mejbri and Wesley Fofana received in the wake of Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with their visitors on Saturday afternoon.
Mejbri started in the away clash, which saw Scott Parker’s side snatch a point with a vital goal deep into injury time at Stamford Bridge, while Fofana was sent off in the second-half leaving Chelsea to defend their lead with 10 men.
But as is distressingly common, in the wake of the result, both Fofana and Mejbri were targeted by unhappy trolls on social media.
The Manchester United academy graduate shared one upsetting message to his Instagram Stories in a bid to shine a light on the extent of the abuse that footballers receive win, lose or draw, captioning the screenshot ‘pfff …’
In his next story, Mejbri offered a message to his trolls, writing: ‘It’s 2026 and there are still (people) like that …
‘Educate yourself and your kids pls’.
Hannibal Mejbri revealed that he was subject to vile racist abuse after Burnley drew with Chelsea on Saturday
The Clarets star shared the abuse on social media and received full backing from his club
Burnley threw their full support behind their player with the issuing of statement soon after the match, detailing how ‘disgusted’ they are by the messages Mejbri was forced to receive.
‘Everyone at Burnley FC is disgusted by the online racist abuse directed at Hannibal following today’s Premier League fixture,’ the statement read. ‘There is no place for this in our society and we condemn it unreservedly.
‘The club continues to be unequivocal in its stance – we have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination.
‘The club has reported the post to Instagram’s parent company, Meta, and expects strong support from them, together with the Premier League and the Police, and will work to ensure that the individual responsible is identified and investigated.
‘Hannibal will receive the full backing from the club and from the Burnley fans who we have already seen condemning the abuse.
‘There is no room for racism.’
Fofana similarly shared a slew of messages he had received from four different abusive accounts on Instagram, before sharing his own statement reading: ‘2026 it’s still the same thing, nothing changes.
‘These people are never punished. You create big campaigns against racism, but nobody actually does anything.’
‘Chelsea Football Club is appalled and disgusted by vile online racist abuse directed at Wesley Fofana,’ his club’s statement reach.
‘The targeted racist abuse Wes has been subjected to following today’s Premier League fixture against Burnley is abhorrent and will not be tolerated.
Fofana was similarly targeted after he was sent off in the second-half of Saturday’s match
The French international hit out against his belief that not enough is being done to combat social media abuse online
‘Such behaviour is completely unacceptable and runs counter to the values of the game and everything we stand for as a club. There is no room for racism.
‘We stand unequivocally with Wes. He has our full support, as do all our players who are too often forced to endure this hatred simply for doing their job. We will work with the relevant authorities and platforms in identifying the perpetrators and take the strongest possible action.’
Last season saw Mejbri the victim of racist abuse on the pitch, with Preston’s Milutin Osmajic handed a nine-game ban by the FA after he was found to have racially abused his opponent during a Championship tie in February.
Osmajic strongly refuted that he had done so, but the Regulatory Commission proved the charge in November.
