Premier League clubs are said to be considering a united social media boycott over one weekend before the end of the season.
The move comes after Tottenham forward Son Heung-min became the latest player to suffer racist abuse following a game against Manchester United on Sunday. He is far from the only Premier League star to be targeted either, with United’s Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Axel Tuanzebe, as well as Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha also reporting abuse.
There is a growing belief that in order to shock social media companies into action, a blanket blackout of all updates is required. Championship Swansea City recently announced they would not be posting on any social media platforms for seven days, with staff and players at Rangers following suit soon after.
According to the Daily Mail, a potential boycott would likely begin on Friday 5pm and run all the through to 9am the following Monday.
There are a few potential roadblocks for the plans. The majority of Premier League clubs have lucrative commercial agreements in place which rely on social media posts. Infringing these contracts could seriously harm income at a time when money is already tight due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite these issues, there is understood to be a growing confidence that the boycott will go ahead before the end of the season. However, top flight clubs are keen to form a united front, as they did with the Players Together Covid-19 relief scheme.
“What we don’t want is a situation where some clubs have their own boycott while others do not,” a source at one club said.
“This is very much all or nothing. If every club decided to do a blanket ban at the same time – and if that was around the same round of fixtures – it would have the maximum possible impact.”