VILE THREATS FOR BRUCE

their father. Death threats? I have had that to deal with.”

The Newcastle manager has now joined calls for social media companies, like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, to police their sites better.

It comes in the wake of the vile racist abuse directed at some players and the death threats sent to referee Mike

Dean (right) after he was responsible for a couple of controversial red cards.

Bruce, who came under sustained attack after

Newcastle went on a miserable run of 10 defeats in 13 games, said:

“In conversations I have had with my family in the past few days, we were talking about Mike Dean, and that’s when it was brought to my attention that I have had it too. Horrible stuff.

“I couldn’t really get my breath – ‘I hope you die of Covid’, and stuff like this. When I see the nature of it, it is totally and utterly vile. Some of the stuff I have had is obscene and it fuels hatred. Something has to be done. Like or loathe refs, or Mike Dean, no one deserves that.

“People threatening his life. It is obscene and ridiculous. They need to clamp down on it and police it better.” That is precisely the aim of the Premier League, FA and EFL, who have joined forces with the PFA, the League Managers Association, match officials body the PGMOL, the women’s professional game and antidiscrimination group Kick it Out, to make clear their concerns.

In an open letter to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, they urge the social media firms to “accept responsibility for preventing abuse”.

The letter sent to Dorsey and Zuckerberg sets out the measures they want the social media sites to implement.

These include blocking abusive messages before they can be sent, and improved verification processes, so the abusers can be identified.