Joachim Andersen, a defender for Crystal Palace, claims that after getting engaged in an incident that resulted in Darwin Nunez of Liverpool being sent off, he received 300–400 hateful messages on Instagram.
After 57 minutes of Monday’s 1-1 draw, Nunez was shown a red card for reacting to Andersen’s shove with a headbutt that knocked the Dane to the ground.
Examples of the abuse, some of which contained threats of death, were shared by Andersen.
He has urged the Premier League and Instagram to take action.
“Got maybe 3-400 of these messages last night,” the 26-year-old said. “I understand you support a team but have some respect and stop act tough online.”
He added: “Hope Instagram and the Premier League do something about this.”
Palace are set to speak to Andersen to offer support. The player is reportedly fine but felt “enough was enough” and had to speak up about the abuse.
It is also understood one of the people who sent him an abusive message has reached out to apologise, saying he had sent it when “very drunk” and now felt “so stupid and was very sorry”.
A Premier League spokesman confirmed the governing body had also been in touch with Palace to offer help.
A ban that prevents them from going to games was made official in June for those found guilty of online hate crimes related to football.
According to a 2021 PFA research, 44% of Premier League players experienced online abuse.
An Ofcom review of 2.3 million tweets from the first half of last season revealed roughly 60,000 abusive postings that had an impact on seven out of ten players in the top division.
The Premier League reported in March that over 400 investigations concerning abuse of its players, coaches, match officials, and their families over the previous year had been initiated.
In June 2020, it debuted its online mechanism for reporting abuse.
Plans for new internet safety regulations in the UK have been put on hold until the autumn, when a new prime minister will take office.
