Premier League: New reporting system for players suffering discriminatory online abuse

Paul Pogba has close to 60 million followers across social media channels Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Players who suffer discriminatory abuse online will be able to report it via a new system provided by the Premier League.

The online service will also be available to coaches, managers and family members of those individuals.

A number of high-profile players have been subjected to abuse on social media this season.

The Premier League says it is "commitment is to review each case and to take immediate follow-up action".

Chief executive Richard Masters said: "There are too many instances of footballers and their families receiving appalling discriminatory messages; nobody should have to deal with this."

The organisation said it also will continue to work with football's major governing bodies to challenge social media companies to identify and ban offenders from their platforms.

Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out introduced an app in 2013, which was revised in 2015 to report incidents of discrimination on social media platforms.

However, in 2019 professional footballers boycotted social media for 24 hours to protest about the way networks and football authorities had responded to racial taunts.