Racist abuse in any form is a stain on society, and it always appears to be prevalent on social media relating to incidents in a football nature.
One only has to think back to the European Championship when Bukayo Saka and others missed penalties to hand the title to Italy, and the horrible abuse that the Three Lions stars then had to endure.
Until social media companies themselves take the appropriate action it seems that the abuse will continue, and this was again in evidence after the recent Chelsea Women’s game against Arsenal Women.
Chelsea’s Lauren James was the victim on this occasion, with the abuse believed to have been directed at the England international after she stamped on an Arsenal player for which she received an immediate yellow card.
Chelsea Women were losing the game at the time and didn’t recover in the match.
‘Chelsea Football Club condemns the online abuse directed towards Lauren James following Sunday’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Arsenal,’ a statement in the official Chelsea website read.
‘The club stands strongly against any form of abuse and discriminatory behaviour.
‘Discrimination has no place at Chelsea Football Club or in any of our communities. We will take action against any individual that we can identify.
‘We stand with you, Lauren.’
It’s unlikely that this will become a watershed moment for the game, but the fact that we are still talking about incidents of this nature occurring show that it really should be.
How is it that writing something so disgusting is allowed to go completely unpunished whilst those on the receiving end have to deal with the consequences.