Toney recently returned from a ban for breaching betting rules
Brentford have condemned the “vile harassment” of Ivan Toney after the England striker was again “subjected to racist abuse” on Instagram.
The Bees said they were “angered and frustrated” by the abuse directed at the 27-year-old.
In March 2023, a man was banned from every football ground in the United Kingdom for three years after racially abusing Toney on social media.
Brentford also called the response of social media companies “underwhelming”.
Toney previously received racist and abusive messages to his Instagram account after scoring the equaliser against Arsenal at Emirates Stadium in February 2023.
“We are angered and frustrated to report that Ivan Toney has been subjected to racist abuse on Instagram once more,” said a Brentford statement.
“We have initiated investigations into this vile harassment which we condemn in the strongest terms.
“Sadly, this isn’t the first time Ivan has had to deal with this. A similar incident occurred just four weeks ago, leading us to identify an alleged perpetrator whom we reported to the authorities.
“To date, we have yet to see any action taken against that individual.”
There have been a number of other similar incidents involving other players, including Luton Town striker Elijah Adebayo earlier this season.
In October, Luton said a “vile, cowardly act of online abuse” was aimed at Adebayo on Instagram and he was “tired” of being on the receiving end again.
Instagram has previously introduced a tool to enable users to automatically filter out abusive messages from those they do not follow on the platform.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, said it had “developed several ways to help protect people from having to see abuse” including filtering out offensive comments and direct messages plus hiding comments and direct messages from people who do not follow you or only followed you recently.
However, Brentford said these “solutions … miss the mark entirely and do not discourage the offenders”.
“We do have faith that things can change. We appreciate the dialogue that we have with the likes of Meta but we call for more decisive and urgent action to combat online hate,” the statement added.
“We call for prompt investigations, and importantly, we call for criminal prosecutions.”
A Meta spokesperson said: “No one should have to experience racist abuse, and we don’t want it on our apps.
“We know no one thing will fix abusive behaviour, but we’re committed to continuing working closely with the football industry to help keep our apps a safe place for footballers and fans.”
Brentford said they would continue to work with the authorities and the Premier League to support players.
The official England account posted on X, formerly Twitter, that it was “incredibly disappointing” that Toney has been subject to racial abuse again.
“This behaviour must have consequences, and we support strong action by the authorities and social media companies,” it added.
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