Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has been forced to publicly condemn online abuse directed towards his players, and he’s made it clear that it has no place at his club.
Lampard has been speaking out after his young striker Tammy Abraham was subjected to racist abuse on Twitter, as reported by Goal.
The 21-year old striker stepped up and missed his sides fifth and decisive penalty against Liverpool in the Super Cup Final on Wednesday evening.
Chelsea narrowly lost the game, and the online abuse started.
It’s become a reoccurring issue on Twitter in particular, where if a football player has a bad game, he/she is bombarded with personal abuse online as a result.
It’s a sad state of affairs, and as reported by Sky Sports, anti-discrimination organisation Kick It Out, are meeting with Twitter bosses to decide on stricter forms of action to put an end to it.
Frank Lampard has made it very clear though, that he and Chelsea will not tolerate any forms of abuse to their players.
Speaking to reporters at Cobham as reported by Goal, he said:
“Firstly, the person that’s writing it should have a look at themselves, and secondly, I think it should be policed.
“In my day, five out of 10 in The Sun was a bad reflection of performance. Now it’s instant. And it’s not a joke. It’s not funny when it becomes hate.
“It’s far too easy to spout hate casually on these social media platforms. I agree it’s difficult for the players. This is modern life. They are on social media. All of them. I am concerned about it.
“To say they need to be thick-skinned is too easy to say. When it becomes you and it becomes hurtful, it’s a problem we have to deal with. It’s difficult to say don’t look at it. They’re all on social media as soon as they go on the coach.
“It’s difficult from my end [to stop them going on it]. The social media companies, are they ever going to stop someone casually putting up what someone did against Tammy? That’s their responsibility.”
