Sheffield United's Chelsea loanee Ethan Ampadu "applauds" clubs for social media boycott in bid to stamp out racism

Swansea took a stance over online abuse on Thursday after three of their players were targeted, declaring "enough is enough" as head coach Steve Cooper said he hoped other clubs would follow their example.

Birmingham and Rangers quickly did so, with the newly-crowned Scottish champions starting their week-long boycott of all social media channels at 7pm on Thursday night.

And Ampadu, revealing that United are also in discussions about how they can possibly support the movement to stamp out online abuse and racism, said: “Only time will tell whether it works or not, all we can do is applaud them for trying to do good things.

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“It’s 2021 and things that shouldn’t be happening still are. They’re trying something different and hopefully it works and some action comes from it.

“It’s just to make more people realise that we’re trying to do something about it and it’s time, these things shouldn’t be happening. Social media is big and if this is the way to do it and get change, then we’ll do it.

“As a club we’re all talking about what we’re going to do next, but we’ll wait to see if it works and hopefully it will.”

Former England manager Sam Allardyce insists the problem of online abuse can only be tackled by football showing unity.

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The West Brom boss said: "I would like an accumulation of football clubs across the board to all do it together.

"That would for me be the only way that a difference may be made, if a united front was put up by all 92 professional clubs."

United’s players have been victims of social media abuse in the past. South Yorkshire Police confirmed that they were investigating a report of abuse sent to a United player online earlier this year, while Bramall Lane strikers David McGoldrick and Rhian Brewster have both shared examples of racist messages they have received on Instagram.

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