FIFA published a report which says that during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022, footballers, coaches and referees received almost 20,000 offensive messages on social networks.

A total of 20 million messages and comments across all major social media platforms were analyzed, successfully verifying the identity of 306 account holders who sent abusive messages.

The most abuse was after England lost to France in the quarter-finals. Then the English striker Harry Kane did not score a penalty at the end of the game. “We are not surprised by this report, but it makes us very sad,” said FIFPro president David Aganso. “We need to protect players from such abuse and find ways to address this issue.”

In 2022, FIFA and FIFPro created the Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) to help players, coaches and referees avoid seeing insults on social media. With the help of this service, 19,636 offensive messages were found and removed.

The software also analyzed the accounts of national teams, former players and members of the media. The report states that a total of 434,000 messages were flagged by AI and verified by humans, with offensive messages coming from 12,600 different accounts.

In addition, the program hides 287,000 offensive comments before the intended recipient sees them.

Of the offensive messages, 38% came from Europe, 36% from South America, 10% from Asia, 8% from Africa and 8% from North and Central America. Among all the insults, 13.47% were sexist, 12.16% homophobic and 10.70% racist. “Social networks do not always respond well to abuse and threats on their platforms. Especially if they are not in English,” the report says. “Many players were accused of racism. Some of them received a lot of abuse. “Homophobia was also common. Social networks did not always take action due to cultural differences.”

French players and the team received the most insults. They were followed by the Brazilians and the British. The women’s world championship, which will begin on July 20, will also have a social network protection service. FIFA has also set up a website where abuse can be reported. “FIFA must protect football, players and fans,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.