Chelsea FC takles discrimination and joins the fight against hate speech during matches

Newly crowned world club champion, Chelsea FC, is actively looking to create change in the sports community with its new “No To Hate” campaign.

The fight against discrimination in football is long running and is now starting to gain attention from clubs and directors. Maintaining a safe and welcoming environment for both fans and players has become Chelsea’s top priority, and they have started implementing new protocol to ensure the best gameday experience for viewers of all races, ethnicities, genders and sexuality.

In a recent match against one of their biggest rivals, Manchester United, on November 28th, on site security at the stadium where busy monitoring the games and had to deal with several cases of fans chanting homophobic slogans and racially aggrevated offences. The club’s security team is equipped with a control room where operations are overseen and the crowd can be monitored. The staff has recently been updated on the protocol for cases of discrimination and are working closely with the local police to takle this issue.

As well as their on site measures, the team has also taken to social media to spread awareness and attract attention to the matter. Their “No To Hate” campaign has continued to gain popularity following the discriminatory abuse of players online. The team has also started working together with a moderating agency that gathers data on abuse across all social media platforms, they are able to rightfully prosecute any fans who are caught taking part in these activities and charge them under criminal offences of discrimination.

Another one of the many actions being taken towards gaining inclusivity within the football community are the Premier League’s laces games. These consist of assigned games where all players wear rainbow coloured laces on their cleats to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community. Unfortunately, homophobic comments are still the most reported kind of hateful behavior against Chelsea fans, and the club is working hard to end this.