FA call on government to act as racist abuse of players on social media continues

The English FA have called on the UK government to involve themselves in the continued fight against racism in football as players continue to come forward with examples of abuse directed towards them.

There has been a worrying spike in racist abuse in recent weeks, with Chelsea duo Reece James and Antonio Rudiger and Manchester United trio Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Axel Tuanzebe some of the more high-profile cases of abuse in recent weeks.

Tuanzebe has been forced to endure two different spats of attacks, while Manchester United Women star Lauren James became the latest player to come forward and call for change.

In response to all the abuse, the FA took to Twitter to call on both the government and social media companies to step up their efforts to combat racism in football, offering their support for those who have been affected.

"It has been yet another weekend where players are facing discriminatory abuse and having to deal with anonymous keyboard warriors who hide in a world of impunity," a statement read. "At The FA, we believe that enough is enough.

"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.

"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 their platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse.

"We stand with Lauren James, Axel Tuanzebe and every victim of discrimination in all its forms. It's time for change."

James took to Instagram to describe comments featuring a monkey emoji as 'boring', before calling on the social media giant to stop talking and start acting.

“Instagram on a real need to do something about it or they will lose so many individuals on their platform – because that’s the only way they will actually listen," she wrote. "Could even just remove any emojis with racist meanings. Too easy for some kid to press a few emojis in order to try and grab some attention. Too much talk around these days, and nothing ever gets done. Usual story.”

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