Chelsea
owner Roman Abramovich has written to his players promising to direct
funding to efforts to stamp out discrimination after a spate of incidents of
online abuse over the last week.
Blues defender Reece James shared vile messages he had been sent, while
Manchester United trio Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Axel Tuanzebe
were also targeted by racist abuse along with West Brom's Romaine Sawyers.
Abramovich is understood to have written to each member of the Chelsea men's
squad, including James, to express how "appalled" he was by the abuse and
his renewed desire to fight it.
"I am appalled by the racist abuse targeted at Reece (James) on social
media," the Russian said in the letter obtained by the Daily Mail.
"Racism has no place in our club nor in our society. Our club is committed
to fighting racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.
"We cannot allow this to continue unchecked. I have therefore directed the
board to further increase the club's efforts in this area and I will
personally direct more funds towards this important work."
Kick It Out and Sky have launched a partnership to end racism in sport
He said he wanted Chelsea to "do more to challenge discrimination at our
club, in our communities and in the world around us".
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden says the Government's Online Harms Bill will
"crack down on online abuse" and tweeted: "Thank you so much to all the
players who have called out the racial abuse they've received online.
"Their experiences will be at the top of my mind as we take this Bill
through parliament."
The bill contains provisions to fine social media companies a proportion of
their turnover if they fail to prevent and tackle online abuse.
"I don't this is just a matter of footballers or famous people," the United
said.
"Of course that gets highlighted. In a sense, it's good that we talk about
it, highlight it again, but it's unacceptable behaviour.
"It happens all across the society and of course we work with the
authorities and it has to be stopped.
"This way of discrimination on social media, we can't do a lot can we?
"So we have to work with the platforms and they've got to be stronger to
make sure that we stop this."
The abuse of Rashford prompted an investigation from Greater Manchester
Police and places further scrutiny on social media platforms as the UK
Government plans to introduce new laws on online abuse in 2021.
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