Troy Deeney has revealed that he gets racially abused between 30-40 times a week, in an interview detailing his experiences with racism online.
There is increasing coverage of the major issue that footballers race online. Virtually every footballer has experienced it, with those who are descendants of non-white backgrounds the most frequently targeted.
We are of course talking about social media abuse, specifically racial abuse in this case, with Birmingham City striker Troy Deeney opening up on the topic in a recent interview with Sky Sports.
As is reported by the Mirror, Deeney revealed that he receives racial abuse on social media between 30-40 times a week. The former Watford man went on to say:
“I think Covid has contributed to that, if we’re talking honestly. I think people are fed up, annoyed and they are venting their frustrations at anything.”
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“It doesn’t give them an excuse. I think it just shows who they truly are anyway. But yeah, whether it’s a picture of me, my missus, my kids. There is no limit to people’s anger and where they will vent that.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Marmite individual. Some people love me, some don’t. But you can talk about my footballing ability all you want, I just don’t understand why you have to talk about the colour of my skin.”
It goes without saying, but more needs to be done from those pulling the strings at social media companies in order to ensure that there is further moderation and harsher punishment for offenders.
Empty threats of user identification and slap-on-the-wrist punishments are not going to be sufficient going forward. We need wholesale, comprehensive, sweeping changes, or it’s never going away…