Police have confirmed that football banning orders of up to 10 years are among the punishments faced by those responsible for targeting England stars during Euro 2025.
Banning orders have been used for decades to counter “fans” responsible for violence or disorder in or around football grounds, but laws were strengthened in 2022 to apply them to football-related offences committed online.
The UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU), which enforces orders and is leading the investigation into the abuse, told The i Paper: “Football banning orders are used in cases of this nature – although the final decision is made by the court.”
It is the latest example of what experts say is a growing trend of online hate against sports stars.
Lioness Jess Carter has been subjected to a torrent of abuse during Euro 2025The incident highlighted the difficulties in securing convictions for online hate. Despite a police finding that 207 of the messages were criminal in nature, only four individuals were eventually convicted for targeting the England stars.
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In the 2023/24 domestic season five online hate crimes related to women’s football were reported. By the end of last season, this figure had jumped to 13.
He said: “The message that racists want to send when they target minority England footballers is it doesn’t matter how powerful you are, how loved you are, how much you’ve done for your country, we can terrorise you.”
Analysis by SentientSports, a UK company that uses AI to monitor and intercept online abuse targeting players, found that of nearly 3,700 publicly posted social media messages mentioning Carter during the tournament so far, some 12 per cent featured a form of personal abuse.
The data showed that where hate speech was used against England players, the majority – some 61 per cent – was sexist or misogynist. About 13 per cent of it was racist and a further 10 per cent was homophobic.
FA bosses have called on social media firms to face harsher sanctions for online abuse of England players
Ryan Beal, the company’s co-founder, said Carter had become a “lightning rod” for abuse targeting the Lionesses, although the public outcry against her treatment in recent days has also seen a significant rise in supportive comments online.
This week, Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham accused social media platforms of failing to prevent England players from suffering racist abuse online. Bullingham said he now wanted to see regulator Ofcom take action on the matter using the Online Safety Act, which gives the watchdog new powers to hold social media giants to account.
Ahmed said there should be little doubt that social media companies are capable of putting in place measures that would control or intercept hate speech when it is used on their platforms.
“So why does it keep happening? It’s because platforms have failed to deal with the algorithm problem, deal with their own failures to enforce their own rules, and fundamentally, their business models are oriented towards engagement controversy.”
Racist comments have been posted under tweets by the English FA throughout the tournamentThe first such ban was issued in March 2023, when Antonio Neill, 24, was banned from every stadium for three years for racially abusing then Brentford striker Ivan Toney on social media.
Separately, last season, Arsenal imposed three banning orders on fans for online hate.
Meta and X did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
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