Police receive nearly 600 referrals of online abuse towards England players
Spike in racist and homophobic posts after gamesUK police taking action over ‘grossly offensive posts’
The UK Football Policing Unit has received nearly 600 referrals of online abuse towards England players since the start of Euro 2024. The figures, revealed by Channel 4 News, showed spikes in abusive posts after England’s group games, with the majority of posts containing racist content or language. The UKFPU has said 26 cases are under investigation.
“It’s roughly around 85% of most of the grossly offensive posts that we see are racism, followed by homophobia,” said superintendent Mike Ankers, the UKFPU investigations lead. “We still get vile use of the N-word. They will be quite prominent. We’ll also get things like monkey emoji, that in itself will be grossly offensive. So we would be taking action.
