Arsenal kit launch turns horrific after Adidas account shares racist and offensive shirts

Twitter feature allowed users to post slurs and swear words on official shirts

The launch of Arsenal’s new kit has been hit by controversy after the official Adidas account was tricked into tweeting out racist and offensive shirts.

As part of the reveal of the new kit, Adidas set up a system that would allow anyone to have their Twitter username written on the back of the shirt, simply by liking a tweet.

The account would automatically create an image of how such a shirt would look, as well as giving users a link to buy the personalised strip. But the feature was immediately hijacked by users with a variety of offensive names.

Some were racist against the black and Jewish communities. Others changed their name to Hitler and Madeleine McCann, while some referenced the Hillsborough disaster.

Because the Adidas feature automatically pulled the names of those users into the system and wrote them on the back of the shirt, it meant the sportswear giant’s account was circulating the names and they had been posted on real Arsenal kits.

Shared thousands of times, they remained visible on the official Adidas account for some time but have since been removed.

One of the tweets the sports firm was forced to delete (PA)

Adidas saidthe feature had been intended as a way of promoting the new shirt and that the posts had been generated because of the “abuse” of a Twitter feature.

“Due to a small minority creating offensive versions of this we have immediately turned off the functionality and the Twitter team will be investigating,” a spokesperson said.

An Arsenal spokesperson said: “We totally condemn the use of language of this nature, which has no place in our game or society. We work hard as a club to encourage diversity and inclusion through our Arsenal for Everyone programme, launched in 2008 as a celebration of the diversity of the Arsenal family.

“Through a number of initiatives undertaken in the community, inside Emirates Stadium and throughout the club, Arsenal strives to ensure that everyone associated with the club feels an equal sense of belonging.”