PFA launch #Enough campaign against racism with player-led 24-hour social media boycott

The Professional Footballers’ Association is setting up its efforts to help combat racism, and specifically racist abuse on social media against players, by encouraging all its members to post red squares* with the declaration ‘ENOUGH.’ on all their social media feeds and profiles, and then boycott the platforms for 24 hours, starting at 9am Friday.

Racist abuse is rife on all the social media platforms, and despite stated policies, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. are not doing enough to help control and combat them. The campaign intends to put pressure on these platforms, as well as football’s worldwide governing bodies like FIFA and UEFA to do more.

“When I said that I can’t wait to see the back of football, it is because of the racism that I, and many other players, have been subjected to our entire careers.

“Football has a problem with racism.

“I don’t want any future players to go through what I’ve been through in my career. Collectively, we are simply not willing to stand-by while too little is done by football authorities and social media companies to protect players from this disgusting abuse.”

-Danny Rose; source: Mail

This is just the “first step in a longer campaign to tackle racism in football” by the PFA, and the response so far has been excellent. All Chelsea players whom I follow on social media are participating, while FIFA has welcomed the boycott as well.

Of course, words must be followed by real action, not just token gestures.

This is a good start, but, as we discussed many times in recent times, we all must do our part, and must do more.

* this is a (marketing) idea that was very effectively used in creating attention for the Fyre Festival a couple years ago, when social media “influencers” posted orange squares to get the word out. Let’s hope this campaign leads to better reality than the Fyre Festival’s orange tiles.