Cheltenham Town have joined hundreds of sports clubs across the country in the FA’s new #stoponlineabuse campaign on social media.
It comes after there was a universal boycott of all social media platforms over the weekend in an attempt to protest against the frequent racism and abuse directed towards sports men and women.
Now, clubs are looking to social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to do more in the fight to stop abuse online and to put in place more severe punishments for those who take part.
Racist abuse has been on the rise in recent years with several high profile sportspeople such as former Arsenal striker Ian Wright going public to share some of the vile messages they receive regularly.
Football still has a significant problem with racism and sadly the problem extends to homophobia. Forest Green Rovers released a statement on May 4th detailing a case of homophobic abuse aimed at one of their players during their League Two match with Tranmere Rovers.
The statement condemned the action and the club said they “will fully support the FA investigation” into the matter.
Racism, homophobia or any kind of abuse should have absolutely no place in football or in any walk of life and the sooner it is eradicated and properly punished the better.