Discrimination must end.
I write this message to you today, not as a football fan or an esports player, but as a human being who is ashamed & disgusted with the behaviour of some of our fellow "fans". I'm sick to my core and have quite frankly had enough of hearing & reading about the discrimination towards our players; it's shameful & a disgrace that this is still happening in the 21st century. We are all human beings, no matter what colour, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion and we should all be treated equally no matter what. It saddens me to tears that people still live suffer constant abuse and have to live with daily discrimination just because they don't look like you or believe the same things you do.
With social media now there's no escape from it - it's constant and because it's anonymous people think they have the freedom to say whatever they want without any consequences, and that cannot go unchallenged. The abuse our 3 young heros went through last night, after what was already one of the hardest nights of their lives, is beyond words.
Within esports, online abuse is also a big problem and is growing as esports becomes more popular throughout the World. I believe we need to fight against it, tackling it directly and indirectly, by making stands like this. As esports is still at it's beginning, big tech platforms are not yet dealing with the problem. Therefore I’m choosing to fight discrimination in football in the hope that it will help tech companies take action for all communities, not just football.
“Kick it out” is an organisation that fights discrimination within football & online abuse; My hope is that by supporting them we can fight this in the most played, watched, followed & loved sport in the world, and then it'll trickle down into all aspects of many so many people’s lives - work, family, sports, esports, social circles...
I ask that we, as humans, stand together to fight against these issues of discrimination, prejudice and abuse. We need to show that we are united behind our football team, not just as football & esport fans, but as people who do not always agree but have had enough of the discrimination, abuse, and attacks in football, but also in life as a whole.
If every person that watched the football game last night in the UK donated £1, we would be £31 million better equipped to help fight discrimination. So if you can afford to do so, please donate to support “Kick it out”. It would be a great help, not just for football, but for everyone to live better lives.
