As football fans around the world tune in to our fixture against Manchester United today, we urge everyone - particularly those in the online community - to remember the sense of unity football brings.
Our world is experiencing extraordinary events and football has the ability to bring people together and provide a sense of belonging and shared identity.
Social media is one of the ways our supporters across the world can feel closer to the club and our players, but across football and beyond we’ve seen an online world poisoned by hateful, racist and discriminatory words.
When the teams come out of the tunnel today, we urge everyone to take a moment to consider the diverse mix of talented individuals, each with their own story and proud heritage. They come together as a team and connect us all, irrespective of race or religion.
Through Arsenal for Everyone we strive to ensure that everyone connected to the club feels an equal sense of belonging. We will continue to celebrate our diversity and use our platforms to educate others and continue our zero-tolerance approach to discrimination. We commit to using our voice and network to strengthen measures and action taken by relevant authorities to punish those responsible for this abuse.
The players you see today and those that went before them are elite athletes, icons to so many people around the world, but first and foremost they are human beings and a part of our family. This abuse affects us all. We cannot let racist and hateful abuse become a normalised part of the game.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
