The Western
Sydney Wanderers striker on being racially abused and how to put in place a system to better support those affected
Bernie Ibini was not long home from a game when he read the first direct message on
Instagram. “Fucking n*****,” it read. “I fuck you and all your fucking family. Your mum is fucking dead bitch.”
There were others, too, on this evening in late January. The Western Sydney winger had just scored against his former club, Newcastle, so the snake emojis popular among disgruntled fans made an appearance. Some of those, however, were accompanied by emojis of monkeys.