Thursday 25 April 2019 20:47, UK
Football players should force social media companies to take stronger action against online racism by quitting the platforms, according to PFA equalities education executive Jason Lee.
The players' union launched a campaign last weekend in which a number of Premier League stars avoided posting on their accounts for 24 hours.
Sky Sports joined in with the campaign by halting all social media activity during the #Enough campaign, but Lee would like to see more permanent action taken by players.
"The power stems from the players now, with social media, players have a voice," Lee said at an anti-racism event in Manchester on Thursday.
"If you want to do something about it you can actually come off social media, that's the biggest thing for me. I wish a lot of people would come off social media.
"You realise that if you were come to off, you would affect all of these companies revenue and that was the idea, it was a first shot."
The likes of Dele Alli, Jessie Lingard, Marcus Rashford, Wiflried Zaha and Ruben Loftus-Cheek supported the campaign, which has already prompted a response from Facebook (owners of Instagram), who have asked to meet with the PFA.
Raheem Sterling, who has been a prominent figure in tackling racism in football, warned earlier this week that social media campaigns and t-shirts do not have enough of an impact to successfully combat the problem.
Former England international Trevor Sinclair, who was also at Thursday's event, agrees with Sterling that stronger sanctions are needed.
"Players like Raheem have been so brave stepping up for criticism sometimes," Sinclair said.
"I think it's brave he's stepped up and he's said it's something that is affecting players and young players too.
"It's something the governing bodies need to sort out and start having sanctions where if clubs feel they have problem people and problem supporters, they can say 'we don't want that at our club.' If they can take that stance then they can have an effect."
