Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has said the abuse he suffered on social media is "a disgrace" and called for world soccer's governing body FIFA to reassess the way they deal with racism.
Greater Manchester Police are investigating claims that the Ivorian was racially abused within hours of re-activating his Twitter account on Monday.
"To have such aggression in sport, I can't understand that. It's a disgrace to be honest," Toure told the BBC. "We need to do something to try to tell people those kinds of behaviour have to stop. I want those people to understand what they're doing is wrong. "I've been trying to say to FIFA that they are on the wrong way and what they are doing is not good. We need to do something to close this chapter. "I've been attacked like that for many years. I will never stop telling them they are wrong and have to change. "Football doesn't have a colour. Sport is sport. Sport is not violence. Sport is not about being bad with people. Sport is about being healthy and proud of what you are doing."
The police said they had been contacted following complaints that Toure had been targeted after tweeting again following a five-month break.
"GMP can confirm we have received a number of complaints regarding racist tweets directed at Manchester City Football Club player Yaya Toure on Monday 3rd November 2014," a police statement said. "Officers are currently investigating."
The 31-year-old left Twitter to focus on this year's World Cup but within hours of sending his first tweet on the social network site, he was subjected to racist insults, the Anti-Discrimination group Kick It Out said in a statement.
Toure, tweeting about City's derby win over Manchester United on Sunday, wrote: "Great to be back on twitter after a good win yesterday. Now my focus is on the next game... Happy Monday everyone!!"
A Kick It Out spokesperson said: "At this stage we have received complaints about two separate tweets of a racist nature aimed at Yaya Toure and now we are informing the police.
"Yaya Toure has been on Twitter for a matter of hours and he has already received abuse of an appalling nature. We are disturbed by the fact that someone can be treated this way.
"It makes footballers start to question why they should use these platforms. We will offer Yaya Toure our full support."
Last year Toure allegedly faced racial abuse from Russian fans when City played CSKA Moscow in a Champions League match in Moscow.
CSKA denied any abuse took place, but UEFA ignored their protests and closed part of their ground for their next Champions League game.
At the time Toure called on African players to boycott the World Cup in Russia in 2018 unless the never-ending instances of racism at Russian soccer stopped.
Toure is expected to play for City against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League in Manchester on Wednesday and his coach Manuel Pellegrini told reporters he would not be affected by what happened.
"Yaya is an experienced player, and is always trying to fight against those things," Pellegrini said.
"I don't think he will have any problem about that and will play the way he always does."
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