The KNVB recently launched a policy plan to tackle racism and online discrimination in Dutch football. A meeting with Facebook on the matter is scheduled for next month.
All football clubs in England recently announced that they will be closing their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts at the end of next week. Clubs want these platforms to do more to tackle racism and discrimination online. English clubs have concluded that footballers are increasingly facing this issue. They had already called on social media via an open letter in February to take action after a series of racist incidents on social media.
The boycott in the UK comes after a long history of incidents.
The German Hoffenheim team announced, today, that it will follow the English model and boycott social media for a few days.
Last year, the KNVB had already launched its “Football belongs to everyone” offensive plan, which contains twenty components to tackle racism and discrimination. The union has been working on this for some time. KNVB also has an eye for an online approach. Together with the government and professional football clubs, the federation wants to investigate the extent of online racism in Dutch football. On the basis of this, a common policy plan for this approach must be drawn up.
The Dutch Football Association is already a little further in addressing the racist and discriminatory reactions that come on its social media channels. The KNVB wants to tackle this more acutely and has provided options for various social interest groups.
There is no question of a boycott of social media, as in Great Britain, in the Netherlands at the moment. The boycott in the UK comes after a long history of incidents and discussions with social media companies that have not yielded the desired results. “The boycott is now taking place there as a last step,” a KNVB spokesperson said.
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