Republic of Ireland and Stoke player James McClean
The Stoke City and Republic of Ireland winger shared a direct message he received on Instagram that threatened to set his family home on fire in a string of abusive messages.
The Professional Footballers’ Association joined the FAI in condemning the abuse directed towards McClean, describing it as “totally unacceptable”.
“To abuse or threaten James or any player because of his nationality should not be tolerated by society,” said Jonathan Hill, the FAI chief executive.
“Unfortunately, such behaviour is all too common now on social media.”
He added: “Only last week we commended the stance taken by English football against the abuse of footballers across all social media channels and we are examining how best we can take a similar stance.”
The FAI’s intercultural programme is currently working on new racism and discrimination policies, which are expected to be presented to the governing body’s executive board in the coming weeks.
McClean, 31, has frequently been the target of social media abuse and has in the past received death threats.
Several professional footballers have received online abuse in recent weeks, prompting football authorities to write to Facebook and Twitter demanding they do more to prevent such activity.
On Friday, the 31-year-old Creggan-born footballer posted a statement on his Instagram page:
“Banging my head against a brick wall here but look i have been doing that anyways for a long time so one more wont make a difference
“Soo much coverage this past couple weeks about discrimination and the condemnation of it across media outlets, players, ex players etc which is great to see because its wrong and idiots should be held responsible for their actions and words as no body should be subjected to that.
“Make no mistake about it or to take anything away from that but just to pose the question really, racism, gender, ethnic..the list of discrimination that goes on is unacceptable right.
“My question is here… does being abused for being irish and anti irish abuse acceptable ? Is it not popular enough to be seen to be knowledged or spoke out about too?
“I have highlighted the abuse publicly on social media recently and the silence from everyone is deafening!
“If you are offended by me saying that then maybe that tells you something
“We are not criminals, we are irishmen! This the crime we stand accused.”
Two days later on Sunday, James again took to Instagram to share some of the abuse he and his family had received, sharing a screenshot of private messages he had been sent by one man.
The messages included the person stating he hoped “for everyone’s sake you just f*** off outta this world,” followed by union flag emojis.
“F*** the IRA and f*** Ireland you c****,” one message read, while another demanded “Answer me you stupid ginger pr***.”
The man then wrote “Don’t make me set your house on fire and burn everyone inside it.”
Sharing the image, McClean wrote on his Instagram story that “the above abuse is fine, that’s water [off] a ducks back”.
But “you mention stuff like [the] last message there and anything involving my kids, that’s crossing the line”.
He went on to say that if “this wee pr***” wanted to repeat the message to his face “I’d happily slap the head off him”.
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