BEVERLY HILLS, February 09, (THEWILL) – A scapegoat may have been found for the fight against online racism and hate in English football as police have arrested a 21-year-old man in Nottinghamshire after English Premier League side, Chelsea, pinpointed him as being responsible for hateful messages flung at Stamford Bridge players.
As reported by THEWILL, the Chelsea duo Antonio Rudiger and Reece James were victims of vile racist abuse online in recent weeks.
Club owner Roman Abramovich found the messages so disgusting he pledged to personally supply more funding to stem racism in the football League.
Acting on information from the club about a man identified as the brain behind a number of racist and abusive tweets, the Nottinghamshire Police arrested a 21 year-old man from Retford. He was released pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation.
Chelsea tweeted a cheerful response to the arrest: “We welcome today’s arrest which shows that hateful messages shared on social media do have consequences. We continue to work closely with the police to support their investigations on this important issue.”
The Metropolitan Police’s Central Football Unit also added to that through Inspector Matt Ashmead: “This action proves that the internet is no safe refuge for trolls to target people with hateful, offensive or racist abuse.
“Online abuse is not victimless and we will look to identify those responsible and take action.”
The English Football Association has always stood by its zero tolerance for any form of abuses in person or online and have called on the government to introduce stricter punishments for anyone involved in racially abusing players online.
They have argued against making excuses for those who engage in any sort of abusive behaviour especially if they are within the age range of serving punishments for their responsibilities.
Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, proposed new measures to make for stricter punishments, but, several Premier League clubs are concerned that the measures won’t be strong enough to address the problems and need to be made more exacting.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
