Estimated instances of discriminatory abuse at 22,000 during Euro 2016
Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion organisation, has published new research to reveal the total amount of football-related discrimination on social media during Euro 2016.
The organisation’s #KlickItOut campaign has been running to raise awareness around the impact of online discrimination and how supporters can report such instances.
The research, conducted by Brandwatch, a world leading social listening and analytics company, focuses on the volume of discriminatory messages directed towards players at Euro 2016 (10 June – 10 July 2016).
Brandwatch monitored discrimination towards all players and managers from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, while abuse levelled against five selected players from the other 20 nations was also analysed.
Roisin Wood, Kick It Out Director, said: “We’ve been discussing football-related social media discrimination for the past two years and it is why we felt the need for our ‘Klick It Out’ campaign around Euro 2016.
“The figures recorded during Euro 2016 again confirm that the volume of abuse is completely unacceptable. Approximately 22,000 instances of ‘direct discriminatory abuse’ during the tournament speaks for itself.
“There needs to be collective action from football authorities, the police and the social media platforms, so that everyone in the game – from supporters right up to players and managers – know the consequences of posting discrimination and the impact it can have on victims.
“We thank those involved in our social media expert group for making great strides in this area and raising the profile of this issue, and to Brandwatch for conducting this research.
“Both Twitter and Facebook have played a crucial part in spreading the importance of reporting and we need to continue to work with the platforms to crack down on offenders.”
The figures shown below are to be considered as the best estimate of ‘direct abuse’ only.
The estimated instances of discriminatory abuse during the tournament amount to approximately 22,000.
England
Estimated instances of discriminatory abuse was 9,881.
The most abused English players / manager:
Roy Hodgson: 1,869
Jamie Vardy: 1,394
Dele Alli: 1,050
Wayne Rooney: 998
Daniel Sturridge: 853
Wales
Estimated instances of discriminatory abuse was 1,994.
Most abused player was Gareth Bale with 1,242 instances of discriminatory abuse.
Five players from selected nations (not from England, Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland). Those receiving the highest volume of discriminatory posts was as follows:
France: 4,013
Germany: 1,183
Spain: 550
Players:
Dimitri Payet: 1,911
Olivier Giroud: 1,382
Paul Pogba: 993
Types of discrimination
The distribution of the messages when broken into the different categories of discrimination reads as follows:
Race (28%)
Gender (27%)
Disability (22%)
Sexual Orientation (13%)
Age (5%)
Antisemitism (3%)
Islamophobia (2%)
Gender Reassignment (0%)
England vs Wales
The 16th of June, the day of the match, generated 2,756 discriminatory mentions, more than any other day during the tournament. Mentions peaked during the match when there was 8.5 discriminatory posts per minute.
Gender Breakdown
A look at the gender distribution of discriminatory mentions reveals a large proportion of abuse from men. 86% of mentions come from men and 14% originate from women.
Overview
What’s the true extent of discriminatory abuse used during Euro 2016? Here it is, broken down:
22,000 discriminatory posts during the tournament.
706 per day.
One new post every two minutes.
Arsenal FC took action against a supporter who engaged in discriminatory abuse on social media and commented: “The Tweets were brought to our attention by Kick It Out and our position is that we do not tolerate discriminatory language or behaviour of any description.
“We work closely with Kick It Out to monitor these things and we identified him as being a previous members of Arsenal, which is how we located his details. The message is zero tolerance against discriminatory behaviour. It is good to get the message out there.”
