THE CARLTON Football Club is aware of a disgusting message that was sent to our player Zac Williams via social media on Monday night.

The racially vilifying comment was immediately reported to the AFL Integrity Unit, with the investigation confirming today that the user account was fake.

Carlton CEO Cain Liddle said the Club is standing with Williams and remains steadfast in its commitment to continue to call out such unacceptable behaviour.

“It is a disgrace that people believe they can just say whatever they want to a person and think no action will be taken” Liddle said.

“We will never stop calling out this sort of racist behaviour because nobody, no matter who you are, should have such vile words directed towards them.

“Zac has the entire Carlton family standing with him, he knows he has our full support but at the same time he is hurting because he has had to put up with this crap throughout his life and that simply is not good enough.
While the Club continues to work with the AFL Integrity Unit, Liddle remained committed to calling on all members of the community to continue the fight against racism.

“While incredibly disheartening, not just for Zac and his family, but for all people who are vilified online, this serves as a reminder on why we remain committed to this cause. The opportunity exists to continually listen, educate and learn to ensure we are part of the solution, not the problem.

“Part of that involves calling out this gutless racist behaviour by individuals, which we have done and we hope that by doing so, it draws attention to the importance of not standing for this – there simply just isn’t room for racism, or vilification of any kind, in our game and in society.”

“We will do whatever we can to continue to remind people that there is absolutely zero tolerance for vilification of any kind. It has to stop.”