Teenager arrested in connection with Kai Havertz online abuse | OneFootball

A 17-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of “malicious communcations” in relation to online abuse of Arsenal’s Kai Havertz and the player’s wife.

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

The BBC report that Hertfordshire Police arrested a 17-year-old from St. Albans following the abuse of Kai Havertz and his wife. The teenager has been bailed while enquiries continue.

Havertz’s wife Sophia shared images of some of the abuse she’d been receiving on her Instagram story following Arsenal’s FA Cup defeat to Manchester United, though it’s not confirmed that the images shared were the same instances of abuse now being investigated.

Those pictures included threats to the couple’s unborn child, and Sophia responded: “For anyone to think it’s okay to write something like this is so shocking to me. I hope you are so ashamed of yourself.

“I’m not sure what to even say but please guys, be more respectful. We are better than this.”

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

Mikel Arteta had a similarly strong response to the abuse, speaking in his press conference ahead of the following game.

“It’s incredible, and we really have to do something about it because accepting that and hiding this I think has terrible consequences,” Arteta began.

“It’s something that we really have to eradicate from the game because it’s so simple and so dependent on the result of an action, and there is no other industry like this.

“On December 27 at home, we won 1-0 and Kai Havertz scored a goal and the whole stadium sang the waka waka song.
That was 20 days ago. Where is the perspective?

“We are all responsible, and all means you guys [the media], everybody is responsible for the narrative, everyone is responsible for how we talk. and we cannot look somewhere else. That’s a really serious matter, and it affects him, it affects me, it affects everybody in the industry in a way.

“We can accept it and say that it’s our job, yes, but there are certain limits and the line has to drawn. We put a lot of attention on technology and what is next, what is next in football, the next in football might be that this is prohibited. It cannot happen – that’s it.”

Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images

The fact that someone is now facing consequences for the abuse is one positive, and the hope is that police action will deter others from engaging in similar activities.