Kevin Danso racially abused by Spurs fans after Brighton draw

As blog manager, I’ve had to write this same piece far too many times. And every time, it sickens me. Following Tottenham’s heartbreaking 2-2 draw at home against Brighton & Hove Albion yesterday—where the visitors equalized deep into second-half stoppage time—Spurs defender Kevin Danso became the target of disgusting racial abuse from so-called fans on social media. Even worse: it happened during the Premier League’s No Room for Racism weekend.

Yes, Danso made a mistake. His decision to pass out from the back instead of clearing the ball led directly to Brighton’s equalizer. But it was a single error in what was otherwise an outstanding performance from the Austrian.

None of that justifies racial abuse, and it’s especially infuriating that most of the abuse came anonymously from people claiming to support Spurs. Football is a team sport. Kevin Danso’s mistake was not the sole reason Tottenham dropped two points yesterday.

To the club’s credit, they issued a swift and strong statement on their website condemning the abuse and promising to take action.

Excerpts from Tottenham Hotspur’s official statement:

Since yesterday’s fixture against Brighton, which took place during the Premier League’s No Room For Racism weekend, Kevin Danso has been, and continues to be, subject to significant and abhorrent racist abuse on social media.

We have heard and seen vile, dehumanising racism. Behaviour that is without doubt a criminal offence. It will not be tolerated.

The club is taking immediate action. We are reporting all identified content to the Metropolitan Police, to the appropriate authorities in the perpetrators’ home countries, and to relevant social media platforms. We will push for the strongest possible action against every person we identify.

Kevin has our complete and unconditional support as a player and as a person. No one at this club will ever stand alone in the face of this.

Nothing about form or league position can ever excuse or explain racist abuse. There is no connection between performance on the pitch and the right to target a player with discrimination. Criticism of performances is part of the game. Racism is not.

We work with specialist third parties dedicated to monitoring online abuse, investigating incidents, and identifying perpetrators.

Abusers could face custodial sentences, football banning orders, criminal records, fines, community orders, or police-mandated educational programmes. We have successfully secured criminal convictions following abuse of our staff and players, including individuals based overseas, and we have also issued indefinite Club bans.

We call on X, Instagram, and all platforms to act quickly and decisively when racist abuse is reported. We also encourage anyone who sees abuse of this kind to report it directly to us at report@tottenhamhotspur.com so we can take the strongest possible action.

There is no place for racism at Tottenham Hotspur. There is no place for racism in football.

There’s little I can add to that statement, except to lament that I was writing the same article 12 years ago as a new blog manager—and I’m still writing it today. I hate it. I hate that these vile individuals are so quick to attack a Black player who has been nothing but good for the club and a fantastic servant, even during this disastrous season.

I hate that social media platforms, which have the tools to combat this wave of anonymous racism, refuse to act. And I hate the acknowledgment that every club has its racist fringe—including ours.

May we one day reach a point as a society where this no longer happens.