Social media is a root cause of unsafe workplaces for footballers, says top-tier player Leon Balogun. The Germany-born Nigerian defender is pushing for change online, on the pitch and in the stands.”
I have this feeling that this constant access to the real me as a player has lowered the threshold for fans in the stadium to a point where some think they are entitled to do things which they really aren’t,” Leon Balogun said during a FIFPRO online discussion in early March.
FIFPRO, the international football players’ union, says the numbers from its recent study bear him out. Three-quarters of the players unions it contacted for its men’s football workplace safety report said that workplace safety is a growing concern for professional footballers. Two-thirds said in recent years that parts of fan culture have “become increasingly more violent and abusive.”
‘Get away with anything’ Balogun, a member of FIFPRO’s Global Player Council, was one of many players surveyed for the study released in January, but was one of the few willing to have his name used. So many others had responded anonymously, fearing retribution in the form of abuse at the stadium, on the way to or from the team bus, or on social media.”
Some people, not the majority, feel because they have paid for a ticket to come to the stadium that it somehow automatically gives them the right to abuse you.