Aberdeen will rally around forward Florian Kamberi after the new Dons signing received personal abuse on Instagram.
Kamberi, who signed for Aberdeen on Deadline Day, reportedly received the hateful message after Wednesday’s game with Celtic.
It comes at a time when there is pressure on social media companies to crack down on the level of abuse directed at professional athletes. A swathe of footballers in England, such as Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Swansea midfielder Yan Dhanda, have received racial abuse on social platforms.
Aberdeen forward Florian Kamberi was sent a message on Instagram today saying: “A cant wait for the day u die”. @SkySportsNews has contacted Instagram regarding any action against the account holder. #HateWontStopUs
— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) February 18, 2021
Dons assistant manager Tony Docherty insists the club will support Kamberi, who he backed to not let the incident affect him.
Docherty also called on social media companies to do more to eradicate hate speech on their platforms.
He said: “I was made aware of it, but Flo is one of our players and he’s been a great lad since he’s come in the building. We’ll do everything we need to do as a club to make sure we look after him.
“Any type of online abuse is just totally unacceptable. We’ve seen so many instances recently throughout football. This is another instance of it – it’s got to be policed. It’s just unacceptable.
“You can play on that anonymity. You can say what you want. It’s been well-documented over the last year, it’s all I hear at the moment. There has to be an end put to this. There has to be some policy.
“If it’s happening at the moment to Flo Kamberi, I don’t think it will bother him the type of personality he is. We’ll make sure we get around him and he’ll be absolutely fine.
“It’s a comment nobody wants to here, but you need to put it into context. You don’t give these people credence or credibility in my opinion. The authorities need to stamp down on it and make sure there’s a non-acceptance of it.”
Kamberi played 90 minutes at Parkhead during the week, hitting the post in the first half and impressing in just his second game for Aberdeen.
Docherty has been impressed with how the former Hibernian man has acquitted himself since his loan move from St Gallen.
He added: “He’s been excellent. He’s been everything we hoped we were going to get. We’ve been an admirer of Flo for quite a while and even in his first couple of days in the building, he’s got a good personality and confidence about him.
“His performances – he’s played two 90 minutes and his performances speak for themselves. I thought he was very good against Celtic and led the line extremely well.
“His enthusiasm and personality, I’ve been really impressed with. He’s one we’re really glad to have in the building.”