EFL players left 'numb' by increase in online abuse

"In the last two seasons we've seen quite a visibly massive increase, around the 100 per cent mark,"

"What's really sad in terms of the players is they've seen it before, when it happens to a player it's not new to them. They become a bit numb to it, and that's a bad place for the players to feel that way."

"The platforms do need to do better in terms of challenging some of this behaviour, stopping people from posting in the first place, then helping us in the removal of those of those messages and images."

"The messages are staying up which is worrying, and the players are continuously seeing the message reappear on the timelines on multiple occasions for whatever reason. Then more people across society see those messages as well and then think it's normalised. We need to remove that normalisation of the words, of the phrases, of the images and of the emojis being used."

More than 5,000 incidents of online abuse targeted about 900 EFL players in the 2024-25 season, representing roughly a 100% increase over two seasons. The EFL uses the Athletia monitoring platform and reports that social media companies are failing to remove abusive content quickly. Players face repeated exposure and growing numbness to abuse. Stadium racist incidents led to 17 fans banned, 24 criminal convictions, 26 restorative justice referrals, and more than 80 cases under investigation. There were 141 incidents of racist abuse at grounds and a Together Against Racism campaign is under way.

Read at www.bbc.com