Police investigate racist abuse claim by Mansfield defender Mal Benning

Police are investigating claims Mansfield defender Mal Benning has been subjected to racist abuse on social media.

The 26-year-old left-back highlighted a tweet he received on Monday evening in which he was allegedly racially abused.

In response, Benning, who has played more than 200 matches for the Sky Bet League Two club, wrote: "Not experienced much 'racism' as one of very few Asian players in the professional game.

"But there is no need for this no matter what race you are or what team you support."

Benning, who joined Mansfield from Walsall in 2015, included anti-racism group Kick it Out and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) in his message. Mansfield also re-posted Benning's tweet.

Mansfield Police Football's Twitter account responded to the message by saying: "We are aware and will be investigating."

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, the PFA called on Twitter to urgently reconsider its policy on accounts that spew racism.

"Last night, Malvind Benning was subjected to vile racist abuse here on @Twitter. The PFA reported the post directly to Twitter, and the offending tweet was removed," the footballers' union wrote.

"While we commend the quick action, simply deleting a post is an insufficient response to tackling racist abuse.

"We cannot understand why Twitter allows racist accounts to continue to participate on the platform. We are calling on @TwitterUK to reconsider their policy and to take stronger action on accounts that post hateful rhetoric.

"In December, we called for a government inquiry into racism in football. We have been in contact with the Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport regarding this issue.

"We will be working to ensure all forms of racist abuse - whether from the stands or social media networks - are included in this process."