Juventus of Italy female team player, Eniola Aluko has suggested legal action by affected players. The Nigerian-born England ex-international opined that footballers should consider pursuing legal action in order to combat discriminatory abuse on social media, megasportsarena.com reports.
Dozens of footballers have already been subjected to racist abuse this season, with the most high-profile online cases including Chelsea’s Nigerian-born striker, Tammy Abraham and his teammate The Blues, Kurt Zouma, as well as Manchester United attacker, Marcus Rashford.
Apart from other celebrated cases affecting Frank Kessie and Raheem Sterling, there are also the recent instances when Paul Pogba was racially abused after his penalty kick taken in a match against Wolverhampton Wanderers was saved, while Kurt Zouma was singled out for abuse after his own goal against Sheffield United
Social media companies are not doing enough to tackle racism directed at people through their platforms, according to Juventus forward Aluko, who suggests the Professional Footballers’ Association should act to protect players from abuse.
Aluko, who has 102-England caps and is also a sports lawyer, added: “It is time to take action over online abuse. Black footballers occasionally retweet examples of the racism directed at them on social media, but Twitter and Facebook aren’t doing enough to stop it. If anything Twitter actually needs it: fury and controversy are what draws people to the site.
“But we can find out who these people are. All it takes is a court order to release their names, and they’re in trouble. There are laws in place to stop this stuff, and people who don’t understand the moral argument against racism have to understand that there will be legal consequences.
“Perhaps the most effective solution would be for black, female and BAME-background athletes to take collective action. If the Professional Footballers’ Association is committed to protecting players’ interests, they should also be looking at this issue.”