Man pleads guilty to racially abusing Newcastle United striker

Wigan Athletic have confirmed that a man who racially abused their former player Ivan Toney online has now plead guilty to the offence.

The 22-year-old player received abusive messages in December 2017, while he was undertaking a loan spell from Newcastle.

Wigan reported the message immediately to both Twitter and to the Greater Manchester Police.

They said in a statement: "Wigan Athletic have been informed that a man has been prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service for a racially aggravated section 4a public order offence, in relation to a social media post sent to Ivan Toney during his loan spell with the club this season."

"The defendant, Calvin White, 25, of Hollycarrside Road, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment and was sentenced to a community order of 12 months, 120 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £170 costs."

"The club immediately notified Twitter and Greater Manchester Police after seeing the post in December 2017 and have been fully cooperative in helping the authorities identify the person responsible for the tweet."

The English charity 'Kick it Out' praised the way that the clubs dealt with the issue: "We applaud Wigan Athletic for notifying both Twitter and the police."

"Discriminatory abuse is no less unacceptable when it is carried out on social media, and this shows that however and wherever this occurs there is no hiding place."

"However, it also proves that there is still a lot of work to be done in and around the game to tackle discrimination and educate offenders."