One in five players at this year’s Women’s World Cup were the targets of online abuse. Data published by Fifa found 152 players out of 697 whose social media accounts were actively monitored received targeted discriminatory, abusive or threatening messaging during the finals.
Homophobic, sexist and sexualised messages accounted for more than half of the abusive posts identified by Fifa’s social media protection service (SMPS). Players at the finals in Australia and New Zealand were found to be 29% more likely to be targeted for online abuse than players at the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar.
Players at the finals were given the opportunity to opt in to the SMPS moderation service, which can intercept and hide abusive messages from view. SMPS scanned more than five million social posts, with 102,511 posts flagged by artificial intelligence for human review. Of those, 7,085 were verified as discriminatory, abusive or threatening and reported to platforms.
United States and Argentina players received the highest volume of abuse. The Fifa data found there were 637 verified instances of abuse linked to the final between England and Spain.
The study found spikes in abusive posts and messages linked to the news that members of Britain’s royal family would not attend the match, and to a good luck message from the prime minister, Rishi Sunak. The conduct of the then Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales after the final created a significant spike in abusive and misogynistic content, Fifa found.
The report contained a quote from Colombia’s Leicy Santos which read: “If there is one thing that footballers suffer from the most, apart from losing, it is all the abusive comments – the taunts, the insults.
“Beyond what we do as professional footballers, we are people. Some players are able to put up with the outrageous abuse we receive online, but other players aren’t. It is a very sensitive issue when it comes to mental health.”
Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, said there was “no place on social media for those who abuse or threaten anyone” and that SMPS had reported and hidden more than 400,000 comments since it was introduced a year ago.
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The analysis found that 67% of the abusive posts originated from North America and 21% from Europe.
Fifa said the verified instances of abuse were reported to social media platforms but the platforms’ response was “sporadic”. Evidence on the identity of account holders, where viable, had been presented to member associations and law enforcement agencies, Fifa said.