Watford news: Troy Deeney claims he was ignored when reporting vile online racist abuse

The Watford captain was told that the ‘monkey emoji is not racist’

Troy Deeney believes that social media companies are not doing enough to combat racist abuse after he reported 60 messages directed at him.

The striker received the messages after Watford defeated Wolves in the FA Cup semi-final last season, but revealed that many of the websites ignored his reports.

One site replied that ‘the monkey emoji is not racist.’

“I turned my comments [on social media sites] off,” Deeney said, as quoted by the Daily Mail. ”I don’t do it because it bothers me, I do it because it bothers others.

“How are Twitter , Instagram and Facebook not doing it?”

Deeney continued: “I have reported at least 60 [messages] just to try and remove them and it [the message that] comes back: ‘the monkey emoji is not racist.'”

The Watford captain has previously referred to those who direct racist abuse his way as “small-minded people.”

Deeney will discuss racism in a new Youtube show The Barbershop Talk, which also features his Watford teammates Andre Gray and Adrian Mariappa.

Gray has previously fallen foul of the Football Association after offensive tweets re-surfaced in 2016, receiving and serving a four game ban, and has criticised the organisation for their attitude.

“This is the FA’s problem,” he said. “They don’t care about anything that happens in non-league. When I got banned for my tweets when I was playing in non-league [for Hinckley United] they admitted they saw them when I was playing in non-league but didn’t say anything.

“As soon as I got to the Premier League it was a problem. They don’t care. It’s only because now we are Premier League footballers, we are a face and people notice. They don’t care about what is going on below the Championship.”

Watford begin their season against Brighton on Saturday.