""On the International Day for Tolerance, I want to make it abundantly clear that football must be a safe and inclusive space - on the pitch, in the stands and online," said Fifa president Gianni Infantino. "Through the Fifa social media protection service (SMPS) and by deploying advanced technology and human expertise, Fifa is taking decisive action to protect players, coaches, teams, and match officials from the serious harm that online abuse causes.""
"Fifa was criticised after it appeared to drop anti-racism messaging at the Club World Cup, which was held in the US this summer, but SMPS was used. A Fifa statement read: "During the tournament SMPS monitored 2,401 active accounts across five social media platforms covering players, coaches, teams and match officials participating at the groundbreaking tournament, with 5.9m posts analysed, 179,517 flagged for review and 20,587 reported to the relevant platforms.""
FIFA has reported more than 30,000 abusive posts to social media platforms this year and more than 65,000 abusive posts overall. Eleven individuals were reported to law enforcement authorities in 2025 and one case was submitted to Interpol. Identified individuals were located in Argentina, Brazil, France, Poland, Spain, the UK and the US after abuse during FIFA competitions. FIFA established the Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) in 2022 with players' union Fifpro to monitor, report and block abusive content. SMPS analysed millions of posts during tournaments, flagged many for review, and reported thousands to platforms while enforcing measures such as ticket blacklisting.
Read at www.bbc.com
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