Eight Manchester United players including Ronaldo and Maguire have been in the top 10 most abused players on Twitter in the first five months of 2021/22 season per latest research.

Ronaldo received the most abuse during the period -12,520 tweets – but also received the most tweets overall, 576,915, meaning 2.2 percent of the messages he received were abusive.

Maguire was ranked second, receiving 8,954 abusive messages which was 14.90 percent of the tweets he received.

Other United players who received who made the most abused list include Fernandes, David De Gea, Fred, Rashford and Paul Pogba, who now plays at Juventus Jesse Lingard who has joined Nottingham Forest .

England captain and Spurs striker Harry Kane and Man City midfielder Jack Grealish, who was a record new-signing , also featured in the top 10.

Except from the top 10, The player who was abused most as a percentage of all of the messages directed at him was Ciaran Clark, at 34.1 per cent.

The Newcastle defender was sent off against Norwich City in November and 78 per cent of all of the abusive tweets he received came on this day, most of them appearing to be from fans of his own club.

The tweets were “attacking his perceived poor performance, with many suggesting he should ‘get out’ of the club. A small number of tweets focused on his nationality,” found the study.

It added: “Otherwise, Ciaran Clark does not receive many tweets compared to other players.

The next most abused player was Crystal Palace’s James McArthur, who was given a yellow card after stepping on the leg of Saka. “Users who appear to be Arsenal fans used insults to refer to James McArthur,” the report said.

Ofcom commissioned researchers at the Alan Turing Institute, the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, to analyse tweets sent during the first five months of the 2021-22 football season

Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s group director for broadcasting and online content, said: “These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game. Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort.

“Social media firms needn’t wait for new laws to make their sites and apps safer for users. When we become the regulator for online safety, tech companies will have to be really open about the steps they’re taking to protect users. We will expect them to design their services with safety in mind.

“Supporters can also play a positive role in protecting the game they love. Our research shows the vast majority of online fans behave responsibly, and as the new season kicks off we’re asking them to report unacceptable, abusive posts whenever they see them.”

“While tackling online abuse is difficult, we can’t leave it unchallenged. More must be done to stop the worst forms of content to ensure that players can do their job without being subjected to abuse.”

Their analysis has shown that there were 60,000 abusive posts out of the 2.3 million tweets that were published in the first half of last season.

There were two peaks in the abusive tweets. The first was when Ronaldo rejoined Manchester United on August 27 2021 when he received 3,961 abusive messages.

The second peak was when Harry Maguire tweeted an apology after Manchester United’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City on November 7. There were 2,903 abusive tweets sent.

10 most abused Premier League Players

  • Cristiano Ronaldo – 12,520
  • Harry Maguire – 8,954
  • Marcus Rashford – 2,557
  • Bruno Fernandes – 2,464
  • Harry Kane – 2,127
  • Fred – 1,924
  • Jesse Lingard – 1,605
  • Jack Grealish – 1,538
  • Paul Pogba – 1,446
  • David de Gea – 1,394

*Between August 13 2021 and January 24 2022 compiled by Ofcom, The Alan Turing Instititute

OJB Sport does not condone online or offline abuse at anybody including footballers.

This is why we encourage our readers and followers not to partake in social media abuse.

Advertisement