Online abuse at Kane over One Love band

HARRY KANE has faced a torrent of online abuse over his support for the rainbow One Love armband at the World Cup, we can reveal.

Ahead of tonight’s match, experts in social media trends have seen a dramatic increase in hate tweets directed at the

England captain over his support for the LGBTQ+ community.

Kane and the rest of the squad in

Qatar, including

Mason Mount, Harry

Maguire and Jack

Grealish, openly supported the rainbow armband being worn to promote diversity and inclusion.

It officially represents a stand against all forms of discrimination.

But it triggered a homophobic backlash on Twitter – mainly aimed at Kane – with him and other players referred to as “rent boys”, “gay”, “fairies” and with calls for them to be banned from representing their country.

One tweet read: “Harry Kane should never play for England again.”

Another directed at the England captain read: “F*** off Lgbt…just play football t***.”

Another said: “England please come out as gay in Qatar so they can throw you in jail.”

Other comments are too offensive to print.

Kane was planning to wear the One Love armband for England’s opening game against Iran on November 21 and had the full support of the rest of the team.

But world football governing body Fifa threatened sanctions against players who wore it and the plan was ditched.

Professor Matthew Williams, of Cardiff University’s Hatelab, which monitors online hate, said the armband controversy had triggered the abuse.

He said: “Usually we see trigger events on the pitch, such as a missed penalty, which cause an increase in hate speech online.

“In this case the controversy surrounding the wearing of the One Love armband was the trigger – and much of the hate has been directed at captain Harry Kane.

“Past abuse has been largely based on race or gender but the abuse directed at Harry Kane and the England squad in Qatar is homophobic.”