Bukayo Saka has admitted that he has also been the victim of racist abuse, but he doesn’t allow it to affect him nor think about it very much.
Racism has become rampant in football nowadays, with a player getting abuse after every matchday.
Arsenal’s Willian has been subjected to abuse online this season with the Brazilian calling for more to be done.
The social media companies have been asked to do more to deter the abusers and also hold them accountable, but they don’t seem to be doing enough.
Now Premier League clubs have decided to boycott their platforms from tomorrow until Monday.
Broadcasters BT Sport, Sky Sports, talkSPORT and DAZN have also confirmed that they will be silent on social media until Monday in solidarity with the clubs.
Saka likes that these actions are being taken and he hopes it brings about the desired change.
Asked if he has suffered abuse this season, the 19-year-old England international said via Standard Sports: “Yeah, of course. I experienced discrimination online. I think every player does. It is very easy for someone to just do it and get away with it. But I am happy that the club [Arsenal] are taking the right measures to try to put a stop to it. I think we are taking a step in the right direction with what we are doing to stop online abuse.
“For me, I don’t let it really affect me, because I try not to look too much into it or read too much into it. I know that someone has the time of day to racially abuse me and stuff like this, so I try not to stoop down to their level. I don’t let it affect me too much.
“I actually spoke to Tyrone [Mings] the other day. He put some story on Instagram, someone just racially abused him casually like it is normal. He just put it on his story and I texted him to say, ‘It’s a joke, it is too easy for this to happen and something needs to be done’. He was saying, ‘We are trying everything. We are trying to speak’. There is a lot being said, it is just the actions we want to see now.”
Years ago we had football hooligans which was getting out of hand so the newspapers took photos of those hooligans at games and plastered them all over the center pages of their papers, to our surprise most were profession man and soon after hooliganism almost died of death, why can’t we name and shame these aholes on social media