The Football Association (FA) has condemned the online racism targeted at some of its players after England’s defeat in yesterday’s UEFA Euro final; and wants social media firms to step up and stamp out abuse. It has also urged the Government to “bring in the appropriate legislation” so this type of unacceptable abuse has “real life consequences”.
The FA said it will “do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible. We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game; but we implore government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real life consequences”.
“We’re disgusted that some of our squad – who have given everything for the shirt this summer – have been subjected to discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game,” England’s team tweeted shortly after the game. Players including Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka have been the subject of appalling online racist abuse after England lost in penalty shoot outs to Italy last night.
UNACCEPTABLE DISCRIMINATION
“We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination; and are appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media,” said The FA. “Social media companies need to step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution and support making the platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse.”
Twitter is reported to have removed thousands of racist posts after the game; as well as suspended a number of accounts. The British Metropolitan police has also opened up an investigation into the “unacceptable abuse”. The UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the behaviour as “disgusting”; and has urged the police to implement “the toughest punishments possible”.
Last year, The FA announced the launch of a new Football Leadership Diversity Code to tackle inequality and drive diversity and inclusion across English football, as reported. More recently, English football united to boycott social media companies over a weekend, to demonstrate they need to do more to stamp out online racism.
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