South Yorkshire Police are investigating Carlton Morris for alleged racist comments during the Boxing Day game against Sheffield United, Luton Town confirmed.
A club statement said: “We can confirm that Carlton Morris reported alleged racist comments made by the crowd at this afternoon’s Premier League match at Bramall Lane.”
The statement added: “Carlton reported the matter to match officials in line with Premier League protocol and the matter was dealt with immediately by Sheffield United and South Yorkshire Police, who are currently investigating.”
“Luton Town will offer our full support to Carlton and any other players who experience abuse and reiterate our zero-tolerance stance against all forms of discrimination, whether in person or online. We would like to thank Field United officials and police Swift action was taken in dealing with today’s incident.”
Luton manager Rob Edwards said Morris complained about comments made by the home fans late in the second half which left the striker “very angry”.
It was a good day for Morris that turned sour as he came off the bench to create two chances, leading to Sheffield United scoring within four minutes. This gave the Hatters a crucial 3-2 victory in the clash between the two teams currently in the Premier League relegation zone.
“There’s been an alleged racist comment, the police are dealing with it, they’ve spoken to Carlton and got his perspective, so now they’ve got that situation as well; I have no further comment on that,” Edwards said after the game. . “He was fine – he was angry at the time but seems fine now.”
Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder said: “Someone made a comment and the referee came over and spoke to me and Rob from a racial perspective and that’s obviously not good if that’s the case.”
Morris was seen speaking to Sam Allison and the fourth official on the sidelines, with the Luton striker later saying he had reported the incident immediately. Alison officiated Tuesday’s game at Bramall Lane, becoming the first black referee to officiate a Premier League match in 15 years.
Morris told Amazon Prime Video: “The Premier League are very good at telling us the protocol and explaining it to us. Unfortunately I heard something from the crowd in the front row and I just knew it was better to report it immediately and let them deal with it from there. .”
