Police are investigating after a racist tweet was directed at Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah, while local rivals Everton also said they were looking into whether the person responsible was part of the club’s fan base.
The tweet, which was posted on Wednesday but has now been deleted, reportedly featured an offensive photoshopped image of Salah.
Merseyside police have said they are investigating the image as a potential hate crime.
Premier League rivals Everton issued a statement "condeming in the strongest terms any kind of racism," adding that they were "looking into the matter further to understand if the Twitter user in question is known to the Club in any way."
Salah, 27, was targeted by racist chanting from fans of former club Chelsea last season. Supporters were heard signing a song that included referring to the Egyptian star as a “bomber.”
Also on rt.com ‘Making a point to the racists’: Salah hits stunner against Chelsea after ‘bomber’ slursResearch in June conducted by Stanford University showed that there had been an 18.9 percent drop in hate crime in the Merseyside area since Salah joined Liverpool in 2017.
The study analyzed around 15 million tweets from football fans, and stated that "we interpret these results to support the hypothesis that Salah's arrival at Liverpool FC caused a decrease in extreme acts of bigotry.”
Salah will be in action for Liverpool when they kick off their Premier League campaign against Norwich at Anfield on Friday.