FA funding police investigations to deal with social media abuse of England stars
The FA have started funding police investigations into social media abuse of England stars.
A host of players have become the victims of online abuse in recent times – including racial discrimination. The police spoke to Gareth Southgate’s squad about social media abuse at St George’s Park during the March internationals.
And now the FA have taken it a step further, by starting to finance a special unit in the British Police dedicated to prosecuting those responsible. FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “Now we are doing things differently.
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(Image: Dave Shopland/REX/Shutterstock)
“In the past what we did was put together all the data, effectively an evidence pack, to give to the police to prosecute. Now we are doing things differently. This time we have gone a stage further, where we are actually funding within the British Police a unit that will then prosecute.
“We are actually paying for the prosecution to then happen, and funding the police to make sure if there are instances of some examples we have seen before, that they got prosecuted. It depends if they (police) can get it over the line or not, but what it does mean is there is a police resource to go for it.
“Whereas beforehand you could take it so far by giving them the evidence pack, but if they haven’t got the resource to take it forward and investigate from their side and prosecute then it is hard. However, from our side, it is completely inexcusable.”
