Players should avoid abusive platforms
ENGLISH Premier League managers stepped up the fight against social media abuse yesterday, with Thomas Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp advising their players to ditch popular platforms and Aston Villa boss Dean Smith calling for a mass boycott. Following the move made by Rangers, Swansea City and Birmingham City in announcing seven-day blackouts to ramp up pressure on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to clean up their sites following more sickening racial abuse directed at players, the EPL and EFL will meet next week to discuss a complete social media boycott. Yesterday, a host of top-flight bosses spoke out, with Jose Mourinho suggesting Tottenham were considering joining the blackout and Chelsea manager Tuchel admitting he would rather his players avoided social media altogether. ‘My advice is very clear,’ declared Tuchel, ‘shut it off, don’t do it, talk. Don’t write, talk to people, talk to your friends. Be close to your real friends, in real life. This is my advice. How can we be surprised that it has an effect on us? How can we be surprised? No surprise — in positive and negative (ways). ‘I’m not sure if I have a clear opinion if we as a club should (boycott). This is not my job to recommend, but we clearly support (it) and I clearly support any actions against abuse on social media.’ Liverpool manager Klopp echoed Tuchel’s advice, saying: ‘With social media in general, we obviously have the problem that people can hide behind whatever account and say what they want to say. That is a problem that really has to get sorted as quickly as possible.’ Mourinho revealed Tottenham are now considering joining the social media blackout after defender Davinson Sanchez was a target for abuse after Spurs’ draw with Newcastle last weekend. He said: ‘The club is thinking, analysing every detail and the club of course wants to make an impact.’ Aston Villa boss Smith gave his strong backing to the idea of a boycott, saying: ‘It should be a unilateral ban throughout all of football. We need to make a stand with this. ‘When all football has a blanket ban on social media then other media companies need to follow and make sure this racism and discrimination of all kinds is eradicated once and for all.’