Everton defender James Tarkowski received online threats after his reckless challenge on Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby this week, his club said Friday.
Everton condemned the abuse, which came after Tarkowski's high challenge in the team's 1-0 loss at Anfield.
“Everton Football Club is aware of threats made towards James Tarkowski and his family on social media. Such behavior is completely unacceptable and has no place in football or society,” the club said in a statement.
Tarkowski was shown a yellow card for his studs-up tackle that left Mac Allister writhing in pain. The league later acknowledged he should have been given a red.
Tarkowski's wife Samantha hit out at the reaction from people on social media.
“The level of abuse my husband is receiving - wishing death on him, vile comments about me, about us as a couple, and about him as a person-is beyond disgusting,” she wrote on Instagram. “People forget that he is more than just a footballer. He is a husband, a son, a brother, a friend, and most importantly, the father of our two children.”
Tarkowski was booked after 11 minutes of the derby when, despite winning the ball, a heavy follow through saw him catch Mac Allister high on his left calf to send the Argentina international spinning on the field.
“For those acting like he deliberately set out to hurt someone- ru serious!? Football moves at speed, and tackles are split second decisions,” Tarkowski's wife said. “No player goes out there to injure someone and do you think any player would feel good about it if they did?”
Everton manager David Moyes said he accepted the challenge was worthy of a red card, but was also critical the abuse directed at Tarkowski.
“It's not acceptable for anybody in any walk of life, but we have to hold our hand up and say after looking at it again I believe that could have been a sending off, but I don’t think that means that you get abused online because of that,” he said. “It's part of football. He made what looked at the time, I thought, a really good tackle, but in looking at it again I think that was a bit reckless.”
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
