Racial abuse of Colin on social media condemned
DERBY County have condemned racial social media abuse received by striker Colin Kazim-richards following Friday night’s game against Nottingham Forest.
The forward scored the Rams’ late equaliser in the 1-1 draw at Pride Park.
The Rams say the abuse has been reported to the relevant authorities and that they will take a “zero tolerance” stance to discrimination and prejudiced behaviour.
A club statement said: “Derby County Football Club is disgusted to have learned that one of its players has been racially abused via social media.
“It was brought to the club’s attention on Saturday morning that Colin Kazim-richards had received racially abusive messages via his social media platforms.
“The abuse received by Colin resulted in him having to have a conversation with his young children to explain why, in this day and age, racism and discrimination still exists.
“It should be clear, there is no place in sport or society for racism.”
The club also said that something has to be done about people receiving abuse on social media platforms.
“Social media abuse is, sadly, becoming more common and it is all too easy for individuals to hide behind an account. This cannot continue,” they said.
“The club has a long-standing commitment to striving for equality and diversity, not only in football but in society, and strongly supports several nationwide campaigns as well as staging its own work in the local community.
“We are united in celebrating our diversity and we stand proudly with Colin and all our players to make it categorically clear that this behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
ROCHDALE manager Brian Barry-murphy admitted that Burton Albion’s intensity had been too much for his team.
“Burton’s intensity in the second half was a little bit too much for us, which was disappointing,” said Barrymurphy.
“Obviously, Ollie Rathbone’s sending off made it even more difficult but there were a lot of parts of our performance that weren’t up to the standards we’ve reached in previous weeks.
“I think there’s a direct correlation between our best performances over a long period of time and the lads’ physical output and, today, it was clear that we couldn’t reach those heights.
“It’s very obvious a lot of our players were, without making excuses, unable to do that.
“They’ve had a lot of games in a short period of time and it looked like it was just a game too far for us.
“But, irrespective of that, our skill levels were a lot lower than they have been previously, so the performance wasn’t anywhere near the levels we had hoped.”
Rochdale are missing a number of players through injury, so much so that former Burton loanee Conor Shaughnessy, a defender, played up front.
“We’re at a stage of the season where we have a whole host of forward players who are missing and, as such, the burden falls on the lads who are available,” added Barry-murphy.
“As I said, for whatever reason, physically, we just couldn’t get anywhere near the heights that we would need to display us in our best light.”