Not a word, a photo or a video … English football clubs are going to set up a “Black-out” total social networks this weekend to denounce the racist insults to which their players are victims on these platforms.
This boycott, observed by the English Football Federation, Premier League, Second Division and Women’s Super League clubs, will begin on Friday April 30 at 2 p.m. local time (4 p.m. in Paris) and end on Monday May 3. at 10:59 p.m. (12:59 a.m. in Paris, May 4).
“This action has been programmed to take place over the entire program of male and female professional football matches”, explained these instances in a joint statement. During this period, the latter will “Close their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts”.
“Reasons of simple human decency”
This operation is a “Response to the continued and sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many other football-related people”, they thus argue. “Racist behavior is unacceptable, and the appalling abuse to which players are subjected on social networks cannot continue”Premier League CEO Richard Masters said. “There is an urgent need for these companies to do more to eradicate racial hatred online. “
This decision follows one already implemented by the Scottish club Glasgow Rangers and the English Football League formations of Birmingham and Swansea, whose players Yan Dhanda, Ben Cabango and Jamal Lowe have recently been targeted. Since the start of the year, several players of color wearing Manchester United shirts, such as Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, as well as Reece James of Chelsea have also been targeted.
On February 11, in an open letter to Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, English football officials called for action “For reasons of simple human decency”. Twitter then replied that it did not intend to censor comments from anonymous accounts.
At the end of March, the famous striker Therry Henry had decided to leave social networks for good, accusing them of conveying racist messages, but also of encouraging people to “Bullying” and at the “Mental torture”.