Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough says more should be done to crackdown on social media abuse of players

It comes after bosses from the Premier League, EFL and FA wrote an open letter to the CEO’s of twitter and facebook calling on the social media giants to take action on abuse.

Football has seen a surge in racism in recent weeks with West Brom’s Romaine Sawyers. Chelsea’s Reece James and Manchester United players Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial amongst the players to have been targeted.

“Something has to happen, social media is not an area I am familiar with but there has to be a solution somewhere,” said Clough. “I don't know if everyone should just come off it for a week to make a stance. Every single prp player comes off it for a week, it doesn't solve the problem but it certainly might for a week.

Here's what the open letter said

“I don't understand how the world of social media really works, but there has to be something done.

“People get abused on it too easily. We have had chats with the players about social media and nobody has come to me with their concerns about it.”

As part of the crackdown football bosses want facebook and Twitter to filter and block messages and posts being sent if they contain racist or discriminatory material.

They want swift measures to take down abusive material and subject users to an improved verification process that (only if required by law enforcement) allows for accurate identification of the person behind the account.

More Mansfield Town news here from Friday’s press conference.