Five months before the World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18), Fifa is joining forces with the international players' union, Fifpro, "to design a plan to protect teams, players, referees and supporters. against the insults that circulate on social networks in times of international competition", it is explained in a press release.

A report released on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Hate Speech on Saturday studied more than 400,000 messages posted on social networks during the semi-finals and the final of two international competitions, the Euro in 2021 and the African Cup in 2022, showing that "more than half of the players have received insults coming, in large part, from their own compatriots".

"Homophobic (40%) and racist (38%) comments account for the majority of cases," the statement said.

Fifa and Fifpro "have decided to launch a moderation service, to be used during competition. This algorithm, which concerns both men's and women's football, will automatically detect hateful terms present in its database and published on identified accounts, in order to make the message invisible to the recipient and its subscribers".

"The author of the comment and his subscribers will still be able to consult it, but its scope will be considerably reduced", estimate Fifa and Fifpro.

"Our duty is to protect football and therefore footballers," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

"Unfortunately, we are seeing a worrying trend of posting unacceptable messages... This form of discrimination, like all others, has no place in football."

"Football must protect players and other communities potentially affected by these increasingly frequent insults in the professional context. Such remarks can have profound consequences on their personality, their family and their performance, not to mention their their well-being or their mental health," said David Aganzo, president of Fifpro.

The international confederation and the players' union also want to offer "educational support and mental health recommendations to all players".

© 2022 AFP