Manchester United duo, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard have taken to their separate Twitter pages to stress that they don’t support any form of discrimination even though they were pictured with controversial British rapper Wiley.
Recently, the controversial rapper took to his Instagram page to share a picture showing when he posed with Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard. Immediately the picture surfaced, people began to attack the footballers for snapping with the rapper.
It was reported that the two footballers met with the rapper during their time out in Dubai and had to take pictures together which did not go down well with most of their followers.
The fact that Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard snapped with Wiley became a big deal because the controversial rapper has been heavily involved in anti-Semitism (discrimination against Jews).
Recall that in 2020, Twitter and Instagram had to delete several accounts belonging to Wiley due to his uncontrollable anti-Semitism activities on the platforms.
In some of the social media posts that forced Instagram and Twitter to place a temporary ban on the rapper, Wiley described Jewish people as “cowards” and “snakes”.
After receiving a series of backlash for his attacks on the Jewish community, his then manager, John Woolf, from A-List Management, told reporters that he would educate the rapper against anti-Semitism.
Afterward, Wiley continued with his anti-Semitism practice which forced the management company to disassociate itself from the rapper.
Even though it has been close to 2 years that he was heavily involved in anti-Semitism ranting on social media, his records are still standing against him. He had to be pressured heavily to delete the picture in which he posed with Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard.
After he deleted the picture, the footballers took to social media to stress that their pose with the rapper was misconstrued.
“This picture has been brought to my attention which I understand now, given context, could easily be misconstrued”, Marcus Rashford wrote on Twitter.
“I would like to reinforce that I do not and will not condone discriminative language or behavior of any kind aimed at the Jewish community or any other community.
“I truly believe that tackling antisemitism in and outside of the game requires a greater level of attention and should very much form part of the game’s anti-racism stance.”
I truly believe that tackling antisemitism in and outside of the game requires a greater level of attention and should very much form part of the game’s anti-racism stance.
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) January 25, 2022
While Jesse Lingard tweeted: “I’ve been made aware of a photo circulating currently, that can easily be misconstrued. I want to make it clear that I do not condone any form of racism whatsoever!”
I’ve been made aware of a photo circulating currently, that can easily be misconstrued. I want to make it clear that I do not condone any form of racism whatsoever!
— Jesse Lingard (@JesseLingard) January 25, 2022
