England players meet police over online racist abuse concerns

Head of the UK Football Policing Unit assured the squad that any instances of abuse would be taken seriously

England players have held talks with police about tackling racist trolls on social media ahead of Euro 2024 this summer.
The head of the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) went to visit Gareth Southgate’s squad during the last international break amid fears of a repeat of the “horrific abuse” suffered by its black members after the Euro 2020 final three years ago.
Chief constable Mark Roberts said he urged players during March’s meeting at St George’s Park to report any such abuse and sought to assure them police would do everything possible to prosecute the perpetrators.
He also said squad members were given advice on how to block racist content from appearing on their personal social media feeds by applying “certain filters”.
Speaking at a pre-Euro 2024 briefing at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Roberts said: “What we were very keen to do was speak to the squad and, one, make sure that they’re aware that we are committed to this, we treat it really seriously, and just to advise them how they can protect themselves. But, equally, that it’s better, I think if you come and deal with something in advance, rather than after the event, trying to explain it.”
Roberts said police had previously faced a lack of cooperation from social media companies in their pursuit of racist trolls amid a six-month statute of limitations on prosecuting them.
He added: “We were seeing instances where the police would put a request into a social media company for the relevant data and the police weren’t always getting it back within the six-month deadline, which completely frustrates the opportunity to do a prosecution.
“We’ve worked with them consistently since that. We have now got a really good relationship. We are seeing the replies being turned round in a matter of days. So, it’s important to get the message out that if people think they can hide behind the keyboard and racially or in other ways engage in hate crime online then we will pursue it, we will prosecute people.
“What we find when we do that work is an awful lot of the offenders are abroad. We don’t give up on that. We work through the National Crime Agency and we will forward files of evidence to the relevant countries. Some will prosecute. Some, candidly, are not interested.
“But it’s important that we do whatever we can to try and ensure that people know they’re not anonymous when they try to do this stuff online.”
The England team security manager, Steve Lewis, said: “It was a really good presentation by Mark’s team. Players listened intently. They know what is available to them, what support is available. They’ll come through me and then I’ll take it back to the police should we get any offences that are disclosed. Hopefully, nothing does happen.”