Tottenham condemn ‘cowardly’ racist abuse sent to forward Jessica Naz after Aston Villa cup tie

Naz revealed after a cup clash with Villa that she had been “subjected to racial abuse in my DMs”. She had been named in Spurs’ starting XI for that contest, but was substituted before the match in question went to penalties. Spot-kicks were required after the game finished 0-0, with Tottenham going on to prevail 7-6 in a battle of nerves from 12 yards.

Naz posted on Instagram when drawing attention to the vile taunts that she was forced to face after turning out at Brisbane Road: “I was going to wait till after the game to speak because I'm done being quiet. I was subjected to racial abuse in my DMs. Racism in any form is unacceptable and is important to address this behaviour and ensure that steps are taken to prevent it from happening again.”

Tottenham have been left saddened by the actions of an ignorant few, with there no place for prejudice and discrimination in modern society or sport. The north London outfit said in a statement on the club’s official website: “The club is disgusted by the racist abuse received by Jessica Naz via social media. Jess has spoken out against this disgraceful behaviour - and we stand by her in calling out this unacceptable and cowardly act. We are working with the appropriate authorities and social media platforms to identify the responsible party, and we will be taking the strongest action against them. There is no place for racism in our sport or anywhere in society. We stand with Jess.”

Naz joined Spurs from arch-rivals Arsenal in 2018 and has started every game in WSL and League Cup competition this season. She has six England caps to her name but did not form part of the Lionesses triumphant squad at Euro 2025.

That tournament was marred by racist abuse of Gotham FC defender Jess Carter, who spoke out after taking the decision to withdraw from social media. She said: “Racism is not just a feature in football, it's in workplaces, it's in day-to-day life. The dos and don'ts to me seem pretty obvious, but there's a lot of people that don't understand. I don't have all the answers. I think that firstly we need to educate people more.”

England manager Sarina Wiegman claimed that not enough is being done to eradicate racism. She told BBC Sport of on-field gestures that carry little weight: “Taking the knee, that's not enough. We have done that for a while. The impact is not good enough, it's not as big as we think. When there is this form of racism we felt we have to do something else, something different, so that's why we are not taking the knee.”

England midfielder Georgina Stanway added: “We feel like it has gone past that [taking the knee] now. We feel it is still happening even when we are taking the knee. We have decided that we will stand and we will not do that. We think that is a way of making change in itself because we want to get people talking - we want to tell people that what is being done isn't enough.”

Mathys Tel, a star for Spurs’ men’s team, was subjected to racist abuse after missing a penalty in a UEFA Super Cup shootout defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. Bournemouth’s Premier League clash with Liverpool at Anfield in August was briefly halted during the first-half after Antoine Semenyo reported being racially abused by a member of the crowd.