Former Newcastle midfielder Jermaine Jenas has revealed the police have "tracked down" two of his racist abusers who targeted him on social media in the aftermath of Euro 2020.
Speaking to the Sun, Jenas said he deleted Twitter after a spate of racial abuse and is pushing for two perpetrators to face punishment for their actions.
The 38-year-old was part of the BBC's commentary team for Euro 2020 and, like many of the current crop of players, the former Magpies midfielder suffered racist abuse throughout the tournament.
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“Pretty much any game I did, I was trending on Twitter afterwards - a lot of it was racial abuse, some of it just abuse for no reason," Jenas told The Sun .
"It got to the point - after the third game, I think - where I had to delete Twitter. It wasn’t a healthy place for me to be."
The former Newcastle player has opened up on the emotional effect the abuse has had on his life, admitting he was "acting a bit differently" around family and friends.
Now Jenas is pushing for punishments for the perpetrators.
"After the tournament, there were a couple of tweets that the police highlighted - ones that were directly racist," he added.
"So I’m currently going through the process of trying to get some form of punishment for those two people. The police have tracked them down, and I’ve given my statement."
However, Jenas isn't confident the two perpetrators will face adequate punishment for their abhorrent behaviour and he insists there must be stronger a "deterrent" to prevent racism on social media.
The co-host of The One Show has called for abuse to be met with a fine or a custodial sentence, while he also stressed the need for education so potential abusers "can learn and change for good".
He also called out the failings of social media websites by recalling a recent exchange with Instagram after he was called a "half-caste c***" by one user.
Jenas said he was "rocked" by the racist abuse and lodged a formal complaint with Instagram only for the social media company to say the horrendous language did not break their "community guidelines".
"Instagram came back to me and said it wasn’t against the community guidelines," he said.
"This is why so many players are so disillusioned."
Jenas has spent the last year researching racism in football for a new Channel 4 documentary with the Football Policing Unit, which works with the Home Office "to reduce violence, antisocial behaviour and disorder at football events"
