Euro 2020. The English Marcus Rashford missed a penalty in the final and was mistreated on the net. Photo: Carl Recine / AP.
The International Federation of Associated Football (FIFA) and the World Players’ Union (FIF Pro) announced the implementation of training to combat racism in stadiums and social networks and the training of players to avoid “hate speech”.
Entities too they launched a plan to protect the teams that will participate in the tournaments organized by FIFA, including the World Cup in Qatar, from racist and discriminatory insults that are repeated on social networks.
They also agreed to accompany the “United Nations International Day to Counter Hate Speech”, which is why FIFA has released a report that reflects the increase in insults received by players on social media platforms during team tournaments.
Within months of the start of the World Cup in Qatar 2022, both will work on coordinating and implementing a plan to protect participating national teams, players, referees and fans from social media insults during their selection tournaments.
In this framework they will provide educational support – which includes best practice recommendations for managing social media accounts – and mental health advice for players participating in FIFA tournaments in 2022 and 2023, and will launch the moderation service while these competitions take place.
The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, determined to overturn the advance of insults in the networks. Photo: EFE / EPA / LAURENT GILLIERON.
FIFA used artificial intelligence to track more than 400,000 posts on social media platforms during the semi-finals and finals of UEFA EURO 2020 and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. and the study indicates that over 50% of gamers have been subjected to some kind of discriminatory insultmost of their nations.
work detected 40 percent homophobic comments and 38 percent post-racist commentsmany of which are still logged into the accounts they were originally intended for.
In response, they decided to launch a moderation service specific for men’s and women’s soccer tournaments, which seeks hate speech that is posted on the social media accounts assigned to it and, upon detection, prevents the recipient and their followers from seeing the comment.
Although the offensive message is still visible to the person who posted the comment, its visibility and scope will be greatly reducedclarified those responsible for reporting.
The report highlights that 90% of reported accounts have a high chance of being identified and hidden comments will remain privately visible to FIFA and FIFPro. Therefore, both entities will work with the authorities of each country so that more judicial and anti-discrimination measures can be taken.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino complained that “there is a trend emerging of an unacceptable percentage of posts on social media channels directed at players, coaches, referees and the teams themselves, and this form of discrimination has no place.” .
“With the Qatar World Cup 2022 and the Australia and New Zealand Women’s World Cup 2023 on the horizon, FIFA and FIFPro recognize the importance of positioning and adding what is monitored on social media to what is already monitored in the stages. EWe see that the movement is moving forward, which is why we will take concrete measures to directly address the problem“, he detailed.
“This collaboration recognizes football’s responsibility to protect players and other interested groups in the face of the insults they receive more and more in and around their workplace. These types of insults have huge repercussions on their personality, their families, their performances, their mental health and general well-being, “said FIFPro head David Aganzo, former Valladolid and Racing de Santander footballer, between the other clubs.
the Rashford case
Last year, the England national team striker, Marco Rashford, was one of the most questioned after the painful defeat in the final of the European Championship against Italy at Wembley for missing one of the penalties in the definition. In the midst of so much pain, the young striker responded to racist messages from some fans and assured him that he would “never” apologize for being who he is.
“I can’t wait to read things written about me. Whether it’s the color of my skin, where I grew up or, more recently, how I choose to spend my time off the pitch. I can criticize my performance all day, my penalty was not good enough, I should have come in, but I will never apologize for who I am and where I come from, “wrote the Manchester United forward, one of three players who failed on penalties.
Marcus Rashford and his anguish at having missed a penalty on penalties against Italy, during the final of the Euro. The pain would continue later, given the reaction of the networks. Photo: REUTERS / Frank Augstein.
In addition to the insults on social media, in Withington, a town located on the outskirts of Manchester United, where he was born, a mural with the face of the young attacker was vandalized. Soon after, hundreds of people came to the place to support it and an artist restored it.
The English Football Association was the first to condemn the racist slurs, saying it was “dismayed” and “disgusted”.
“We are disgusted that some members of our team who gave everything for the shirt were subjected to discriminatory attacks online after the game,” said the Football Association (FA, for its acronym in English).
They also noted that “the FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is upset by racism on social media against some England players.”
Source: Clarin
