David Beckham, Marcus Rashford and Gareth Bale are among the names to have joined a 24-hour social media boycott in a protest against online racial abuse.
Rashford’s Manchester United team mate Jesse Lingard has also taken part in the boycott — organised by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) in England — along with Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin and a number of other Premier League players.
Premier League clubs Manchester United and Watford expressed support for the movement on Friday morning, with the former sharing a video to promote equality in football.
Following a series of high-profile incidents of racism, the PFA encouraged players to stay off Twitter, Facebook and Instagram from 9 a.m. BST Friday until 9 a.m. BST Saturday.
FIFA supported the boycott, saying that it was listening to the concerns of players and supporting their decision to put pressure on social media companies to take stronger action against racism.
“We applaud the initiative of the English professional football players,” FIFA said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“FIFA is fully engaged in combating racism and any form of discrimination not only in football but society in general.”
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