KNVB moves to report racist abuse after Dutch penalty miss

The Dutch football association (KNVB) will file a report with Meld.Online Discriminatie after three Netherlands internationals – Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber and Crysencio Summerville – were hit with racist messages on Instagram following their missed penalty in the World Cup loss to Morocco. The match ended in a defeat to Morocco, with the penalty miss a key moment. Social media users posted racist slogans and images of apes on the players' Instagram accounts. Justin Kluivert and Crysencio Summerville disabled the comment function on their posts, hiding further reactions. Quinten Timber's post remained open, revealing at least several dozen racist comments.

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A KNVB spokesperson said, "We find this terrible," adding that online racism has no place in football or society. The federation will lodge a complaint with Meld.Online Discriminatie, which will assess the posts for criminality. Meld.Online Discriminatie told it had not yet received the KNVB report but had already logged dozens of racist reports ahead of the game, some of which were deemed illegal. During the World Cup, a television spot featuring former international Ruud Gullit warned viewers about online hate.

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The KNVB has long run an anti‑racism campaign. A comparable episode in 2021 saw English black internationals Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka miss penalties in the Euro final and subsequently receive racist abuse. Police investigated more than 600 messages in that case and arrested eleven suspects. Fans rallied around Saka, with Arsenal displaying thousands of letters, cards and flags in support.