Cyrus Christie abuse wasn’t a one-off

Grotesque abuse hurled at Cyrus Christie online came to the fore this week, the latest example of how football, and sport in general, continues to battle the scourge of racism.

In the case of Ireland’s right-back, his verbal assault stemmed from a troll based outside of these shores but the evidence is there to indicate society hasn’t fully warmed to the diversity brought about by the intercultural hue of the population over the past decade.

Both the expansion of the European Union and the influx of asylum seekers from Africa has filtered into football, to such an extent that Ireland’s underage squads are sprinkled with players either born overseas or brought up in a family that immigrated to Ireland.