Portsmouth ‘fan’ racism storm heats up as Northamptonshire Police set to probe into abusive messages sent to Peterborough striker Ivan Toney after Fratton Park win

Striker Ivan Toney shared two messages he had received, including one from an account claiming to support Portsmouth, after he scored the winner at Fratton Park on Tuesday night. 

The Blues slammed the abuse sent to the Posh player as ‘abhorrent’ and said they would do everything in their power to identify the person. 

Northamptonshire Police are set to launch an investigation into the vile messages sent to Toney this week. 

A spokeswoman for the force said that they had been ‘made aware’ of the racist Instagram messages which has been reported to Cambridgeshire Police as ‘a hate crime’. 

She added: ‘It is in the process of being transferred to Northamptonshire Police and once that is complete our officers will begin investigating.’

Toney shared two separate screenshots on Twitter showing the vile message he had been sent on Instagram, both of which features emojis of bananas and monkeys.  

One of the abusive posts that had been sent to the striker, whose 75th minute goal on Tuesday dashed the Blues dreams of automatic promotion, was from a person claiming to be a Pompey fan. 

In the bio for the account on Instagram, which goes by the name Jack Churcher, it included the phrase Blues PUP as well as a picture of Ronan Curtis. 

A club statement said: ‘Portsmouth Football Club have been made aware of a racist message sent to Peterborough United player Ivan Toney on social media.

‘The individual who sent this abhorrent message claims to be a Pompey fan and the club will do everything in its power to identify them.

‘There is no place in football – or indeed society – for racism and it will not be tolerated at Portsmouth Football Club.

‘The club have reported this incident to the police and will work to assist them with any investigation.

‘We would also like to apologise to Ivan Toney for any distress this incident has caused.’

In a statement on Twitter anti-racism campaigners, Kick It Out, wrote: ‘Good to see swift action from both clubs on this incident and we applaud their uncompromising stance.

‘We have offered our support to Ivan Toney and again stress to social media companies that they need to do more to rid their platforms of discrimination.’

Following the emergence of the first racist message sent to Toney, Peterborough branded it as ‘wholly unacceptable’. 

A club statement said: ‘We are aware of a message that has been sent to one of our players on social media of a racist nature this evening.

‘The content of that message is wholly unacceptable and we will be reporting it to the football authorities, social networks and the police.’

Toney opened the scoring at Fratton Park in the 15th minute, before grabbing the late winner to dash Pompey’s automatic promotion dreams in the 75th minute.