Chelsea FC suffer most abuse from social media trolls

Chelsea are the most targeted club, while Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli suffered more abuse than any other player

PREMIER League clubs and players have received more than 130,000 abusive posts on social media this season, according to a study by anti-discrimination group Kick It Out.

The research found Chelsea were the most targeted club, while Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli suffered more abuse than any other player.

Kick It Out now wants to form an expert group to tackle internet trolls.

“The level of abuse is truly staggering,” director Roisin Wood said.

“We must do all we can as a collective to protect those who are on the receiving end of discriminatory abuse.”

The group says it is exploring forming a group made up of representatives from football, social media platforms and police to address the level of football-related racist, sexist and homophobic abuse.

Wood said: “This research shows the true extent of the issue we are dealing with. So far this season, we have received 140 complaints relating to football-based hate crime on social media, yet we can see from these findings that over 134,000 discriminatory posts have occurred just in relation to the Premier League.

“It is a huge volume to be looking at addressing but we must confront the problem head on.”
According to Kick It Out’s study, there have been an estimated 134,400 discriminatory posts this season related to the Premier League alone.

That equates to:

16,800 discriminatory posts a month
551 of them per day
1 abusive mention every 2.6 minutes

BBCSport