Stop the trolls Fury over racist abuse of Pogba

England coach calls on footballers to protest United players speak up after Pogba is targeted

Phil Neville, the England Women head coach, has implored footballers to “boycott all social media now” in response to the racial abuse Paul Pogba suffered after missing a penalty in the 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday.

Neville echoed the calls of Pogba’s United team-mate, Harry Maguire, for new measures to identify anonymous Twitter and Instagram users after the midfielder became the third footballer in England to suffer such abuse in a week, along with Reading’s Yakou Meite and Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham.

Pogba was abused after he had insisted on taking the penalty ahead of Marcus Rashford, who had scored from the spot against Chelsea the previous weekend.

“It’s not going away,” Neville said of the abuse. “At times, you feel as if you’re making inroads, and then you get a massive reminder that, actually, we’re probably not.

“We [have] to take drastic measures now as a football community. I’ve had it with my players on social media, the Premier League stars, the Championship – I just wonder whether, as a football community, we come off social media. Twitter won’t do anything about it, Instagram won’t do anything. They send you an email reply saying they’ll investigate, but nothing happens. I’ve lost total faith in whoever runs these social media departments.

“I wonder whether [the next course of action], as a football community, in terms of really sending a powerful message, is: come off social media. Six months – let’s come off. Let’s see the effect that it has on these social media companies, whether they’re really going to do something about it.

“It’s a problem not just in football – it’s a problem in society, but football now is at the forefront of everybody’s minds in terms of, we’ve got the power to do something about it. It’s getting to the point where we need to make a real strong message, and I say to every single footballer, and to every club, and to the PFA [Professional Footballers’ Association]: why don’t we make a stand? Boycott all social media and see if that makes a big enough impact.”

Neville demanded Instagram “do something” after rape and death threats were directed at then England and Chelsea Women midfielder Karen Carney via Instagram in October last year. Chelsea Women reported the messages – including “I wish you cancer and leukaemia” and “I hope someone will rape you to death” – to the police. Rashford and Maguire spoke out in support of Pogba yesterday.

“Disgusting. Social media need to do something about it,” defender Maguire tweeted. “Every account that is opened should be verified by a passport/driving licence. Stop these pathetic trolls making numerous accounts to abuse people”. Rashford wrote: “Enough now, this needs to stop. Manchester United is a family. @paulpogba is a huge part of that family. You attack him you attack us all @Manutd.”

Neville added: “You can be an egg on Twitter and no one knows who you are. My players get that kind of abuse all the time, whether it’s racist, whether it’s sexist, whether it’s homophobic. Nothing gets done about it. Don’t we have a task force [between the] FA and Premier League doing everything

‘Let’s come off and see the effect that it has on social media firms’

possible? It’s just plugging holes [for it to end up] leaking elsewhere. The social media aspect affects my players daily.”

In a statement, United said: “Everyone at Manchester United is disgusted by the racial abuse aimed at Paul Pogba and we utterly condemn it. The individuals who expressed these views do not represent the values of our great club and it is encouraging to see the vast majority of our fans condemn this on social media also.

“Manchester United has zero tolerance of any form of racism or discrimination and a long-standing commitment to campaigning against it through our #Allredallequal initiative. We will work to identify the few involved in these incidents and take the strongest course of action available to us. We also encourage social media companies to take action in these cases.”

United reportedly want to meet Twitter executives to discuss the problem.

Anti-discrimination campaign group Kick It Out said the number of players targeted recently highlighted the need for further action.

A statement said: “The latest round of fixtures have again seen unwarranted and vile racist abuse sent to players. The number of posts such as these since the start of the season highlights how discriminatory abuse online is out of control. Without immediate and the strongest possible action these cowardly acts will continue to grow.”