June 26, (THEWILL) – To coincide with the United Nations International Day for Countering Hate Speech on Saturday, June 18, FIFA released an independent report that detailed the rising volume of abuse targeted at footballers on social media during international competitions. The report was titled, ‘AI Monitoring: Protecting Professional Players’ and it analysed data surrounding the online reactions to football games played at the continental competitions organised by the Union of European Football Associations (the Euro 2020) and the Confederation of African Football (TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations).
As THEWILL previously reported, the English Football Association had to outrightly condemn the racist online abuse suffered by three of the country’s black footballers in the Three Lions’ national squad Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho after England’s Euro 2020 loss to Italy. It so happened that Saka, Rashford and Sancho all missed penalties during England’s 3-2 loss via penalty shootout that fateful Sunday night and they were immediately targeted with racist language and emojis on their social media accounts.
Acting immediately, the FA has released a statement condemning the “disgusting behaviour” and even British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stepped in to properly condemned the racist abuse aimed at the players, especially from their own countrymen.
The case was not different back home during the AFCON earlier this year. As THEWILL reported, the Super Eagles became favourites for the AFCON title after a flawless group stage campaign, despite the absence of important players and sub-optimal preparations. The Eguavoen-led team won all nine points by defeating Egypt, Sudan, and Guinea-Bissau. However, they were disappointedly eliminated after a 1-0 loss to Tunisia’s Carthage Eagles in the second round, putting an end to their quest for a fourth continental title. Immediately after, goalkeeper Maduka Okoye was chastised by fans for conceding the winning goal from Youssef Msakni’s long-range strike early in the second half of the match. Some fans were also disappointed with Alex Iwobi, who was sent off just five minutes after coming off the bench. Supporters took to social media to harass and threaten the players, forcing Iwobi and Okoye to remove their social media accounts and Eguavoen believes such fans went too far in expressing their displeasure with the team’s setback.
The Technical Director at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and then-coach of the national side, Augustine Eguavoen, had to come out in support of the players and he focused his point on the sacrifices that players make when representing the country saying “People need to act responsibly and not turn their disappointments into hate speech and threats against some players. These players gave their everything and there is no way you can single them out for blame. Playing for Nigeria comes with a lot of pressure, but you cannot bully, threaten or abuse someone for defending the honour of the country because you have access to social media. This is wrong and irresponsible.”
It is this same point that FIFA is making with their report. In order to protect participating teams, players, officials, and fans from online abuse during its international tournaments, FIFA is collaborating with FIFPRO, the global representative organisation for professional footballers. They are determined to make a difference exactly five months before the kickoff of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
From the report, it was made clear that over 50 per cent of players received some form of discriminatory abuse, with much of that abuse coming from the players’ home country. It used artificial intelligence to track over 400,000 posts on social media platforms during the semi-final and final stages of two international competitions (UEFA EURO 2020 and CAF African Cup of Nations 2021).
The majority of the abuse came from homophobic (40 per cent) and racist (38 per cent) comments, much of which is still published to the accounts it was initially directed towards even to this day.
Part of the action taken in response to the startling findings is that FIFA and FIFPRO will introduce a special in-tournament moderation programme for both men’s and women’s football that will scan recognised hate speech terms posted to known social media accounts and, if found, will block the recipient and their followers from seeing that comment.
The offensive message’s visibility and reach will be greatly decreased, even though the person who wrote the comment will still be able to see it. As hidden comments will continue to be privately visible to FIFA and FIFPRO, the report also emphasises that 90 per cent of the accounts flagged by the study as having published these abusive comments have a high probability of being identified. This means that such account activity could be escalated to the appropriate social platform(s) and law enforcement authorities so that further action could be taken.
Gianni Infantino, the FIFA President, said, “Our duty is to protect football, and that starts with the players who bring so much joy and happiness to all of us by their exploits on the field of play. Unfortunately, there is a trend developing where a percentage of posts on social media channels directed towards players, coaches, match officials and the teams themselves is not acceptable, and this form of discrimination – like any form of discrimination – has no place in football.
“With the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and FIFA World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 are on the horizon, FIFA and FIFPRO recognise it is important to make a stand and to include what is monitored on social media with what is already being monitored in the stadiums.
“We want our actions to speak louder than our words and that is why we are taking concrete measures to tackle the problem directly. This detection is not only there to protect football and to avoid the damaging effects that these posts can cause, but also to educate current and future generations who engage with our sport on social media as well as on the field of play. We expect that, by standing together on this problem, social media platforms will do the same and will actively support us in being part of the solution.”
On his part, David Aganzo, who is FIFPRO President, noted, “This collaboration recognises football’s responsibility to protect the players and other affected groups against the abuse they increasingly face in and around their workplace. This type of abuse has a profound impact on their personalities, their families, performance as well as on their overall well-being and mental health.
“Online abuse is a societal issue and as an industry we cannot accept that this new form of abuse and discrimination affects so many people including our players. Several player unions have carried out very good work on this topic which, connected to our recent report launched in conjunction with other player unions, gives us many insights when approaching this matter going forward. Research such as these reports is critical, but it must lead to action to provide prevention and remedy. We are glad that this cooperation with FIFA is a constructive step in this direction.”
Beyond the football pitch, it is unfortunately becoming commonplace knowledge to see more athletes becoming victims of individuals looking to incite hatred, hostility or discrimination due to the increased integration of Internet platforms intended to unite people. Recently, sporting unions are waking up to their responsibilities to stand up for sportsmen and women, make sure they are safe, and encourage them to take action.
In order to protect players’ vulnerabilities, FIFPRO and unions such as the Basketball men’s and women’s unions in the USA, have renewed their dedication to conducting capacity-building projects that inform players about online abuse and make use of both new and current mental-health programmes to keep them from the effects of such abuses. To safeguard players, FIFPRO, the NBPA, and the WNBPA feel that coordinated and cooperative industrial action is necessary among online platforms, governments, teams, and competition organisers.
Responding to the outcome of another study on online abuse of sportsmen and women, Jonas Baer-Hoffmann, FIFPRO General Secretary, said: “The study shows us that when athletes share and embrace who they, and engage in causes they care deeply about, they become a target for online abuse — this is both outrageous and heartbreaking. It’s our job as unions to help protect football and basketball players by offering them mental-health support. We must also impress on social media companies and institutions their collective responsibility to join us in safeguarding players and promoting an online community that fosters inclusion and respect.”
FIFPRO is urging public institutions to swiftly put in place appropriate safeguards against racial abuse and hate speech on social media in collaboration with FIFA, the world football governing body. Football players and other sportsmen increasingly spend a significant amount of time on websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. But, up until now, these platforms have largely failed to clearly and forcefully condemn abusive behaviour. While condemnation trailed the abuses black English players suffered, a Facebook company spokesperson, speaking on behalf of Instagram said: “No one should have to experience racist abuse anywhere, and we don’t want it on Instagram. We quickly removed comments and accounts directing abuse at England’s footballers last night and we’ll continue to take action against those that break our rules. In addition to our work to remove this content, we encourage all players to turn on Hidden Words, a tool which means no one has to see abuse in their comments or DMs. No one thing will fix this challenge overnight, but we’re committed to keeping our community safe from abuse.”
On their part, the Metropolitan Police tweeted: “We are aware of a number of offensive and racist social media comments being directed towards footballers following the #Euro2020 final. This abuse is totally unacceptable, it will not be tolerated and it will be investigated.”
Even as they encourage public involvement on social media platforms and aid in drawing attention to pressing social issues, footballers, athletes and their teams continue to be targets of an increased amount of disgusting racist and discriminatory abuse. Through this collaboration, FIFA and FIFPRO will also create educational resources, including best practises for social media account management, and mental health guidance for all players competing in FIFA tournaments in 2022 and 2023, and they will implement the moderation service during these events.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
