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It has been a week where many players have been victims of online racial abuse. It seems as though no end is in sight, with Southampton’s Alex Jankewitz the latest to receive racial abuse via social media.
Jankewitz was sent off after just over a minute in the Saints’ 9-0 defeat to Manchester United on Tuesday night.
Today, it has been revealed that Hampshire Police are looking into the comments made on his social media platforms. Although details of the abuse have not been published, this is not the first incident of a player receiving abuse during or after a game, with many others suffering the same in the last few days.
Manchester United
It has been a mixed couple of weeks for Manchester United, who progressed in the FA Cup, only to lose to bottom of the table Sheffield United a few days later in the league. It was discovered after the game, that during the defeat, there had been a string of racist terminology and monkey emojis appearing in the comments on the social media accounts of Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial.
All parts of the football community stood with the players and Manchester United, as the vicious side of social media once again was highlighted, but this was not an isolated incident to the pair. Manchester United made the public aware of the abuse via a statement on their website.
Days later, Marcus Rashford took to Twitter to announce that he had received abuse too. In a thread of tweets, the Manchester United forward spoke about being ‘proud’ and that ‘no one, or no one’s comment, is going to make me feel any different’.
The 23-year-old refused to share the messages sent, ‘I have beautiful children of all colours following me and they don’t need to read it’.
West Bromwich Albion
Two days later, West Brom released a statement regarding abuse that Romaine Sawyers had received. The message is believed to have been sent directly to the midfielder days before West Brom’s 5-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The West Midlands club reported the incident to the police, to allow them to investigate, and pursue legal action which has subsequently seen an arrest.
Sawyers has worked with Kick It Out, and also works extensively in the community, winning the Community Player of the Year, of each club that he has been at.
Chelsea
On the same day as West Brom, Chelsea came out with a similar statement, about the abuse that defender Reece James had been sent directly on his Instagram.
The image has been shared and seen all across social media and, as with the others, many figures within the footballing world and beyond have stood with the 21-year-old against racism.
James has been vocal on social media since the incident, and has put pressure on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to ‘do more’ in a tweet that has been shared over 2500 times.
It isn’t just the player themselves receiving abuse
Since Jankewitz’s red card on Tuesday night, fan pages of the player have also had abuse sent to them. I spoke with the Instagram page Alex_Jankewitz_Fans, who revealed they have disabled comments after receiving ’20-30′ racist and abusive comments.
“I run a fan page for Alex by the name of alex_jankewitz_fans. The messages ranged from monkey emojis to f****** monkey”
The page is still running, but the issue highlights the severity of the problem that the social media giants need to act upon.
What is being done?
In the cases of Sawyers and Jankewitz, the police have investigated. There has been an arrest made in the Sawyers case, but the Jankewitz case is very recent, so no news has been given. The hope is that more cases end with prosecution and the message spreads that racial abuse will be caught.
Kick It Out has been pushing for the government to step up its action against racism on social media. The ball has well and truly started rolling, however, some feel it is happening too slowly and started later than it should have.
This latest surge will once again see the government be pressured by Kick It Out and other groups and individuals.
The biggest issue is the social media channels themselves. Reece James has called for them to do more, as are many other bodies. The more that the issue is spoken about, the more it gains traction, and hopefully the players can make a stand against those who are behind these messages, to bring about a change.
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