Football Fans Demand Action Against Online Racist Abuse Targeting Players

Wolverhampton Wanderers FC fans have called for football and social media bosses to work together to crack down on digital racist abuse directed at players. It comes after Wolves striker Tolu Arokodare and Sunderland winger Romaine Mundle were among four Premier League players targeted with racist messages on social media, in what has been described as an "appalling weekend". Reacting to the incident, fans have told the BBC that they want new tools put in place to stop offensive phrases from being allowed to be published online.

In a statement, Wolves said: "Tolu has our full and unwavering support. No player should be subjected to such hatred simply for doing their job." Arokodare, a Nigerian international, took to Instagram on Sunday to share screenshots of a series of private messages he received following his side's 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace. The 25-year-old was bombarded with abuse after the game in which he had a first-half penalty saved, before Evann Guess scored an injury-time Palace winner.

"It's still unbelievable to me that we're playing in a time where people have so much freedom to communicate such racism without any consequences," wrote Arokodare on his Instagram story. "These individuals should have no place in our game and collectively we have to take action to punish everyone who taints the sport like this, no matter who they are." The messages were also shared publicly by the club.

Speaking to BBC Radio WM, Manny Singh Kang, a Wolves fan and Wolves Foundation fundraiser, called for social media leaders to utilise tools to recognise offensive language and prevent it from being posted. He said: "It's just gutting, I couldn't even read them. It's kind of been normalised for some people to write these without consequence. That normalisation comes from leadership, social media company bosses who kind of turn a blind eye.

He said it will not stop "until football authorities sit face-to-face with social media companies and say 'no, we're not leaving this room until you put a control in to stop this abuse from happening'." Warinder Juss, Labour MP for Wolverhampton and a football fan, pledged to escalate the case to ask government ministers about working with social media companies to prevent offensive comments from appearing.

The politician added: "When something like this happens, it affects me at another level personally, because for years I did not go to a football match [as] I was always told I would be racially abused [for] my appearance and the colour of my skin. My other concern is sadly racism seems to be rising in society in general, and I think it's pouring onto our terraces again, which is really sad because I remember the 1970s and we really need to take strong swift action. We cannot carry on having this racial abuse of our players every time something goes wrong on the pitch, it's happened before and it will happen again unless we take action."

Dazzling Dave, from Always Wolves Fan TV, called the messages "absolutely abhorrent and disgusting". He told BBC Radio WM listeners: "The social media companies need to do more in making sure that anyone that signs up to these accounts [is] legitimate, and when they hide behind faceless accounts they can be traced, tracked and made accountable so people can't get away with it."

Last November, a BBC investigation found more than 2,000 extremely abusive social media posts - including death and rape threats - were sent about managers and players in the Premier League and Women's Super League in a single weekend. Samuel Okafor, from the anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out, said it had seen a "significant increase" in reports of discrimination. "We've seen an increase in online abuse by a third," he said. "Particularly this season."

The UK Football Policing Unit has launched a number of investigations but acknowledged "there is always more to do", and has said it will continue to work closely with Ofcom, English Football authorities, and social media platforms to tackle the issue.