JAKARTA - The ban on football will be changed to cover online racism and social media abuse directed at England players. The statement came from the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, while speaking in front of lawmakers, this week.
"If you are guilty of racist abuse online against a footballer then you will not go to the game. Not if, no buts. No exceptions and no excuses," said Boris Johnson.
Johnson reiterated his condemnation of racist abuse on social media aimed at British stars such as Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. All three are accused of being the cause of England's defeat in the Euro 2020 final.
But Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Johnson of giving racism the "green light" and of trying to spark a "culture war" over the issue of England players kneeling before matches to protest racial injustice.
Johnson's commitment follows a Labor directive calling for the football ban to be extended to cover online abuse. But the statement also sparked another response.
"If Boris Johnson wanted to extend the Football Banning Order to include online racism, he could have done this long ago. When will he put those words into action?" said the opposition culture secretary, Jo Stevens.
The ban order allows judges to stop someone from going to a stadium to see a football match in England. This can be done if they are punished for the relevant offence. However, the current ban does not cover online incidents on the internet.
A convicted person can be sentenced to between three and 10 years. Usually they are convicted of engaging in violent offenses and public disturbances. This is common for British hooligans.
Meanwhile a petition calling for racism to be banned in matches has garnered more than a million signatures in the past two days.
Shaista Aziz, Amna Abdullatif and Huda Jawad - who call themselves The Three Hijabi in reference to their attire, created the petition on Monday, July 12.
Johnson met with representatives from Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram at his office, No. Downing Street. 10 on Tuesday, July 13 to address abuse issues on their platform.
The PM stated that he: “explained to them (the platform owners) that we will make a law to address this issue in the Online Danger Bill”.
"If they are unable to remove hate and racism from their platforms, then they will face a fine of 10% of their global revenue," added Boris Johnson.
Sir Keir challenged Johnson on the issue as the two debated in parliament. He said the PM "can't do both", suggesting that Johnson had at one stage failed to criticize supporters who jeered at England players who knelt before matches to campaign against racism.
Boris Johnson was no less fierce to answer the accusations. "We made it very clear that no one should boo the England team," the PM said.
"I want to reiterate my support, our support, our total support for our fantastic team and I support them in the way they show solidarity with their friends who are facing racism," the British PM replied.
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