Hannibal Mejbri: Abuser of former United starlet facing huge ban | OneFootball

Former Manchester United academy star Hannibal Mejbri suffered racial abuse earlier this year.

Hannibal’s United career

The Tunisian international joined the Red Devils in 2019 from AS Monaco.

Hannibal impressed at academy level and made his senior debut in 2021.

The midfielder would go on to make 13 appearances for United’s senior team, scoring his only goal in a home defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion in 2023.

He finally moved to Burnley for the 2024/2025 season and played a key role in them securing promotion back to the Premier League.

The Tunisian has also been a key member of their Premier League team so far, playing in all ten league matches to date.

Abuse

Whilst playing in the Championship last year for Burnley, in a match against Preston North End, Mejbri accused Milutin Osmajic of abusing him.

The Manchester Evening News reports that “Preston North End striker Milutin Osmajic has been banned for nine matches after he allegedly racially abused ex-Manchester United midfielder Hannibal Mejbri earlier this year.”

The paper explains that, “the incident occurred in Preston’s goalless draw vs Burnley in the Championship, on February 15, and Osmajic will now miss up to and including the club’s game against Stoke on Boxing Day. The 26-year-old, who has scored four times in 11 second tier appearances this season, has also been fined £21,000.”

Osmajic “strongly refuted” the accusation but the Football Association found that the use of “abusive and/or insulting words which included reference to colour and/or race” were found to be used by Osmajic during the incident.

The FA’s statement read, “an independent Regulatory Commission has sanctioned Preston North End FC’s Milutin Osmajic for a proven breach of FA Rule E3.”

It continued, “it was alleged that the forward had breached FA Rule E3.1 by acting in an improper manner and/or using abusive and/or insulting words towards a Burnley FC player during their EFL Championship fixture on Saturday 15 February.”

Featured image Jan Kruger via Getty Images

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