Online abuse at footballers to be tackled by AI software after Marcus Rashford case

Artificial Intelligence (AI) software is set to be implemented in Australia to stop top-flight footballers from being abused online.

Online abuse directed at players has become one of football's biggest problems in recent years. A teenager was jailed for six weeks last month for sending a racist tweet to Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford after England lost the Euro 2020 final.

Countless Premier League footballers have highlighted the sickening abuse they receive online and the Australian A-League - both men's and women's - have taken action by announcing the use of AI technology to filter harmful comments before they're seen.

The automated machine-learning technology is created by a British company named GoBubble and will monitor the social media accounts of players to block harmful messages, images and emojis. If successful, the software could be implemented elsewhere.

The news comes after Josh Cavallo - the only openly gay man currently playing professional top-flight football - received homophobic abuse in January. The 22-year-old plays for A-League outfit Adelaide United and has represented Australia at U20 level.

"I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t see or hear the homophobic abuse at the game last night," Cavallo wrote on Instagram. "There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was. As a society this shows we still face these problems in 2022.

“This shouldn’t be acceptable and we need to do more to hold this [sic] people accountable. Hate never will win. I will never apologise for living my truth and most recently who I am outside of football.

“To Instagram, I don’t want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that I’ve received. I knew truly being who I am that