“Nothing Changes” — Wesley Fofana condemns unpunished racism After receiving VILE abuse following Red card in Chelsea’s draw with Burnley

Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana was sent off during his side’s frustrating 1-1 Premier League draw with Burnley at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, February 21, 2026.

The Frenchman received a second yellow card in the closing stages for a late challenge on James Ward-Prowse, contributing to Chelsea throwing away a late lead under manager Liam Rosenior.

Shortly after the final whistle, Fofana became the target of a wave of horrific racist abuse in his Instagram DMs

In a raw and direct response on his Instagram Stories, the 25-year-old Frenchman shared multiple screenshots of the abusive messages he received, many of them laced with racist slurs and monkey emojis directly referencing his red card.

One of the abusive profiles used a picture of Chelsea teammate Reece James in an apparent attempt to pose as a genuine fan.

Fofana captioned the screenshots with a powerful statement that has since gone viral:

“2026, it’s still the same thing, nothing changes. These people are never punished. You create big campaigns against racism, but nobody actually does anything," he wrote in a separate post on his Stories.

The abuse came from multiple accounts, some with very few followers and others appearing to be newly created or anonymous. Several senders explicitly blamed Fofana’s red card for Chelsea dropping two points in added time, turning football frustration into overt racism.

Among the messages were:• “Stupid f******g monkey. You should be put in a zoo after that red card. You’re an idi#t.”. Another vile message read: “You motherf****r you made us draw with Burnley F**k you with your red card Piece of sh#*” followed by two monkey emojis.

Another shared a lone “Monkey” message, while another account sent him a a full grid of monkey emojis mixed with poop emojis.

This is far from an isolated incident. Despite years of high-profile campaigns by the Premier League (“No Room For Racism”), the FA, Kick It Out, and individual clubs, players (especially Black players), continue to face this kind of targeted online hatred with little visible consequence for the perpetrators.

Online platforms make tracing and punishing abusers notoriously difficult, and football authorities have repeatedly been criticised for slow or ineffective responses once incidents move from the pitch to private DMs.

Fofana’s frustration echoes what many players have said before: the campaigns feel performative when real accountability is missing.

Chelsea are yet to issue an official statement on the abuse directed at their player, though Burnley separately condemned racist messages sent to their own midfielder Hannibal Mejbri after the same match.