Lord of the Dance
Swansea players and staff to boycott social media over racial abuse
Sport

Swansea players and staff to boycott social media over racial abuse

A STRONG stance taken by the entire club.

Swansea City have confirmed that the entire club will be taking part in a full social media boycott for seven days.

From 5pm today (April 8) all first-team players, those in the academy professional phase (under-23s and under-18s), Swansea City Ladies, the Community Trust, senior club staff and official club channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat) will not post any content for a period of seven days.

Irish internationals Conor Hourihane and Ryan Manning will take part in the boycott.

This comes after Swansea striker Jamal Lowe received racial abuse online after a game last weekend.

Swansea City captain Matt Grimes said that the racial abuse players receive online is "sickening and vile".

He said: "As a close and diverse group of players, this is something we all feel extremely passionate about."

"Three of our squad have been racially abused in recent weeks and, as a squad and club, we wanted to take this stance as we again call on those at the forefront of social media companies to implement the change that is needed now and in the future.

"I find it staggering that we are still talking about racism and abuse of this kind. We are acutely aware of the pressures within football at this level, but it shouldn’t be underestimated as to how such levels of abuse can affect someone.

"Social media has provided so many positives over the last decade, however, the sickening and vile abuse that we are seeing on a daily and weekly basis is wholly unacceptable, and we hope that this stance across the club will be supported by everyone.

"We are a family, and we will always stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, whether that’s on the pitch or helping to fight injustice off it.

"Enough is enough."