MANCHESTER CITY’S Yaya Toure is at the centre of another racism storm – this time on Twitter after campaign group Kick It Out (KIO) reported abusive tweets sent to the midfielder.
The 31-year-old Ivory Coast star – considered one of the world’s best in the heart of the park – had only just returned to the social media site following a five-month absence.
KIO said they received complaints of racism directed at Toure and acted on the information by reporting it to police.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: “Yaya Toure has been on Twitter for a matter of hours and he has already received abuse of an appalling nature.
“We are disturbed by the fact that someone can be treated this way.
“It makes footballers start to question why they should use these platforms.
“We will offer Yaya Toure our full support.”
Last season the three-time African footballer of the year was the target of racist abuse from CSKA Moscow fans during a City Champions League away win in the Russian capital.
Toure expressed his disgust at the behaviour of some of the home crowd and called for black footballers to consider boycotting the Russia 2018 World Cup if the country’s authorities did not stamp out racism.
CSKA denied racism took place but were nonetheless punished by Uefa with a partial stadium closure for their next European fixture.