FIFA's racism report claims 50% of players targeted during Euro 2020 & AFCON 2022 finals

FIFA, the world football governing body, has released a report on social media abuse directed at players during the Euro 2020 and AFCON 2022 championships. During the tournaments, nearly half of the players were subjected to racist and homophobic insults on social media, according to the report. FIFA and FIFPRO collaborated to release the independent report on the United Nations International Day for Countering Hate Speech, which was on June 18.

The report used artificial intelligence to track over 4,00,000 posts on social media during the finals of the two tournaments. According to the survey, abusers targeted more than half of the players, with the majority of the comments coming from their home country. Abusers targeted England's Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka, among others. They were targeted out after failing to score penalties in the Euro 2020 final against Italy.

The report also stated that one Egyptian player received 50% of all Islamophobic comments made during the AFCON final. It said that most of those comments came from the United Kingdom and seem to have been triggered by rivalries in domestic football. Egypt's Mohamed Salah, who plays for Liverpool in the English Premier League, could be the unnamed player. 

According to the survey, homophobic slurs were more common than racial insults, with 38 per cent of racist abuse compared to 40 per cent of homophobic comments. The report further stated that 90% of accounts involved in discriminatory abuse on social media have a "high probability of identification". FIFA said that such accounts could be identified and reported to law enforcement authorities so action could be taken against them. 

'This form of discrimination has no place in football'

"Our duty is to protect the 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," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. 

"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," he added.   

Image: AP