The Qatar 2022 World Cup in the goals: FIFA’s plan against the ‘haters’ and for the mental health of the players

As never before, given the evident development of the last decade, social networks will ‘play’ the World Cup in Qatar 2022. but much ChirpingWhat instagram Y Facebookperhaps the most used, they are too cradle of criticism in which the extent of the damage they can cause in football players is usually not taken. Therefore, FIFA and the FIFPro union have launched this week a protective service (SMPS, according to its acronym in English) which aims at control and moderate speechesand which was offered to all members of the 32 participating teams.

All those who join the SMPS will have access to a “specific control, reporting and moderation service aimed at minimizing the visibility on social networks of hate speech against them” and, therefore, to protect both “players and their fans from the insults uttered on the Internet during the championship”.

“FIFA is committed to offering the best possible conditions for players to perform at the highest level. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™, we are delighted to be able to launch a service that will help protect players from the harmful effects social media posts can have on their mental health and well-being,” said the president of the association Fifa, Gianni Infantino.

“Football has a responsibility to protect players and other affected groups from the insults they receive with increasing frequency in and around their workplace. This type of name-calling has profound repercussions on their personalities, their families and their performance, as well as their mental health and general well-being,” said the FIFPRO president, David Agano.

“We hope that the social media protection service will be a starting point to help defend participants from offensive messages and that social media companies will join us in helping us fight the problem at the FIFA World Cup. FIFA” , he concluded.

Last June, FIFA and FIFPro released two independent reports that revealed the increase in insults that footballers receive on social platforms during national team championships.

FIFA therefore monitors the social media accounts of all World Cup participants for offensive, discriminatory and threatening comments aimed at the public; and, once found, report them to social media and legal authorities, so they can take action in the real world against those who break the rules.

Likewise, participating teams, players, and other people may choose to do so a moderation service that will instantly hide abusive and abusive comments on Facebook, Instagram and YouTubepreventing the recipient and their followers from seeing them.

In addition to launching the social media protection service, FIFA and FIFPro are engaging with social media platforms to enlist their support to be part of the solution.

The healthy crusade of Gonzalo Higuaín

Just over a month ago, Gonzalo Higuaín announced his retirement from professional football. He was a great footballer who left his mark in Europe and who was also a key player in the Argentina national team for many years. Impossible to verify, but both Pipita and Sergio Agüero, Angel Di María and even Carlos Tevez would have had an even bigger poster if they hadn’t been Lionel Messi’s peers.

However, Higuaín’s greatness was not enough to satisfy the black palate of some who perhaps have not had and do not have even a tenth of success such as the former River, Real Madrid, Naples, Juventus, Milan and Chelsea.

There were many who did not forgive him, with unusual cruelty, the wasted opportunities in the finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil against Germany and the 2015 and 2016 Copa America against Chile, played with the Argentina national team. As if it was easy to be there. So much so that the figure of the footballer who emerged in River ended up being, for the always brave anonymous people on social media, synonymous with a meme.

“Abuse on social media? It will never change. The only thing I ask or hear is that people notice before making a comment or posting something, because they don’t know the irreparable damage they cause to people. There are many people who they don’t have the possibility to defend themselves, to speak,” Higuaín began, still moved after reading the letter in which he thanked all those who accompanied his career in a moving press conference.

And he continued: “I suffered it firsthand, it hurt me, but I had a family behind me who helped me. There are many who can’t make it. Five seconds behind a computer ruin people, because anonymous beautiful men will exist for life.90% of children suffer from it and don’t talk about it.So I think it comes more from home education,than anything else,because if your child does so,he may also suffer from that.The good news is not they sell, what it sells hurts people I hope so (it changes things), but I doubt it.

A few days ago Higuaín spoke at length about the problem. It was after hosting the Argentina national team that he stopped in Miami during his North American tour, where he collected victories against Honduras, at Hard Rock Stadium in the Florida city, and Jamaica, New Jersey.

Faced with a question from journalist Gustavo López, on the ESPN F360 program, Pipita was energetic. “I’ll answer you with a question. As the meme, accusation or tease has become naturalized, people see it and consume it, it settles, for example, in homes and fathers and mothers do not realize that their children can be affected by it. victims… or causes. I was asked to breathe a bit, but, for the missed goals or for everything that happened with the other?

In this sense he revealed his sufferings due to the virtual attacks he suffered and which also forced him to rethink his career.

“It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the missed goals, but rather that I didn’t enjoy the repercussions of what we’re talking about. Bullying, fierce criticism, are the order of the day and it’s normal, millions of people suffer from it they don’t communicate it and it becomes a load which can cause death. and they take a drastic decision,” he remarked.