Everton Football Club are in the spotlight as they confirm their ongoing cooperation with Merseyside Police to address a serious incident of reported racist abuse.

The abuse was allegedly directed towards an Arsenal player during Sunday’s Premier League match at Goodison Park.

Everton Football Club have announced they are cooperating with Merseyside Police to investigate a reported incident of racist abuse directed towards an unnamed Arsenal player.

The incident allegedly took place 15 minutes into the first half of Sunday’s Premier League match at Goodison Park.

In an official statement, Everton said: “Everton Football Club is working alongside Merseyside Police to investigate a reported incident of racist abuse directed towards an opposition player during Sunday’s Premier League match with Arsenal at Goodison Park.

“Everton condemns all forms of discrimination and we will seek the strongest possible sanctions to tackle anti-social and or criminal behaviour, including club bans and criminal prosecution.

“The incident took place approximately 15 minutes into the first half of Sunday’s game, in the Lower Gwladys Street stand near to the Bullens Road stand.”

This comes after Everton recently condemned “vile” racist abuse directed towards their own midfielder, Amadou Onana, just last month.

Onana, 22, had shared a screenshot of an Instagram message he received, reading: “Useless monkey.”

In response, the club stated: “Everton strongly condemn any form of racist and discriminatory abuse towards our players.

“Such abuse is vile and will not and should not be tolerated. The club is conducting an investigation to identify the individual responsible and will also be supporting police with any investigation they conduct.

“We must all take a zero-tolerance stance by reporting such behaviour to social media platforms and the authorities. Racism has no place online, in our stadia or in our communities.”

Everton lost 1-0 to Arsenal on Sunday, and the alleged racist abuse reportedly occurred in the Lower Gwladys Street stand, adjacent to the Bullens Road stand.

As for Arsenal, they have yet to release a statement concerning the incident.