Online trolls involved in sending racist and sexist abuse to Lionesses stars are facing lengthy football stadium bans for their “vile” social media messages.
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.
It comes after defender Jess Carter, 27, was forced to step away from social media after receiving a torrent of racist and misogynistic abuse during the tournament in Switzerland, where the Lionesses will meet Spain in the final on Sunday
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.
At least a dozen such bans, or similar measures taken by individual clubs, have now been put in place, but it is believed that any banning order arising from the abuse targeting Carter would be the first of its kind in women’s football.
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.”
The worst of the abuse targeting Carter is understood to have been delivered via direct messages to a personal social media account, alongside posts on public platforms such as X.
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 2025Four years ago, racist abuse targeting England stars Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final defeat against Italy, resulted in 600 complaints to police.
The 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.
Figures published last week by the UKFPU suggest that hate crimes by online trolls is a growing problem in women’s football.
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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.
Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the US-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which monitors online abuse, said social media has become a “panacea” for racists who seek to use its apparent anonymity to attack players.
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.”
Data provided to The i Paper shows that Carter, who plays her football in the United States and is engaged to Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, has been disproportionately targeted by online trolls during Euro 2025.
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.
Lauren James, another black England player, had the next highest level of abuse at six per cent. Abuse levels targeting other Lionesses stood at between two and four per cent overall.
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.
The abuse aimed at Carter peaked during England’s quarter-final victory against Sweden. SentientSports said the vast majority – some 87 per cent – of the abusive posts it had detected were on X.
FA bosses have called on social media firms to face harsher sanctions for online abuse of England playersRyan 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.
Mr Beal said the prevalence of the abuse against the England players was symptomatic of a wider issue – the policing by social media companies of content on their platforms. He said: “Moderation from social media platforms, especially X, is moving in the wrong direction. It’s become incredibly difficult to get even clearly racist content removed.”
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.
Under powers due to come into force later this year, online platforms will face legal action if they are deemed to be failing to enforce their own rules banning posts which are racist, sexist or otherwise offensive in nature.
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.
He said: “Because of the way that the social media algorithms work by prioritising engagement – and that’s people supporting them or people saying how dare you – posts by racists become more visible with every interaction.
“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 tournamentBoth the courts and individual clubs, which can apply for civil banning orders, are making increasing use of the measure to tackle online abuse of players and staff.
The 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.
Last month, a 20-year-old man from Fareham, Hampshire, was banned from football grounds for three years for sending a racist direct message from an anonymous Instagram account to a black player for non-league Tamworth FC.
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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