STEVE Clarke, the Scotland manager, has called for greater regulation of social media websites to protect footballers from racist abuse.
His appeal came after Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara claimed he was called “a f****** monkey” by opposition player Ondrej Kudela during the Europa League game against Slava Prague at Ibrox last Thursday night.
And his team mate Alfredo Morelos was the victim of vile abuse by a poster on Instagram after scoring in the Premiership match against Celtic at Parkhead on Sunday afternoon.
Facebook and Instagram have both pledged to take action to stamp out racism on their sites by banning those who send offensive messages following criticism of their safeguards.
Clarke, whose players will stand against racism before they launch their Qatar 2022 qualifying campaign against Austria at Hampden this evening, admitted there is little he can do as a coach to stop his players being targeted. However, he believes more could be done to protect footballers.
“Social media is a big part of society,” he said. “It’s not going away, it’s not going anywhere. But it has to be better controlled.
“People that can go on under a false name with no comeback on what they say or show, that has to be eradicated. If you want to be on social media you should have to supply a document that says who you are and then you are accountable for your words.
“To me as a lay person who doesn’t use social media, I never have and at my age I probably never will, but my children use it.
“I’d like to think my children go on there and they are responsible and they are not afraid to put their own name on there and I think that’s the way to go with social media.”
Clarke added: “If the messages are more controlled and people are accountable and you know who is putting those messages there you have much better control and you can block sites and accounts.
“I don’t know a lot about social media, but I do believe that for example if an illegal bit of film was posted from Sky or a film clip that has to be taken down because they can be fined heavily for that. So there is a way to control it.”
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