A mobile phone app that will allow football supporters to report racist and other abuse instantly and attach photographs, video, audio or screen shots has been launched by the game’s anti-discrimination campaign organisation, Kick It Out. The facility to attach evidence of such incidents, which is often vital to securing disciplinary or criminal action against people committing abuse, is a significant improvement to the reporting app first launched by Kick It Out in July 2013.
Mobile phone footage of the Chelsea supporters pushing a black French citizen, Souleymane Sylla, off the Paris Metro in February was crucial to the incident being publicised and ultimately punished last month with three fans banned from attending football matches for the maximum five years and a fourth banned for three years.
The Kick It Out app enables fans at matches to report alleged abuse instantly and confidentially – and anonymously if they choose that option – to the safety officer at the stadium, who is then expected to alert stewards and have incidents dealt with swiftly. Last season 36% of reports about alleged abuse in the professional game were made via the app, Kick It Out said, with 54 complaints made via the app in total, a 59% increase on the 34 made in the 2013-14 season.
Full details of the abuse reported last season, including the different forms of discrimination and mechanisms used, are expected to be released within the next two weeks.
Anna Jönsson, reporting officer for Kick It Out, said of the new facility: “The updated version allows complainants to provide us with a greater level of evidence to support investigations through the use of video, photos and audio. We have particularly seen the use of video evidence play a key role in highlighting discriminatory behaviour and it is important we give complainants the opportunity to bring this to our attention if they have the footage recorded.”
The organisation hopes the improved app, which enables screen shots to be taken of abusive posts on social media, will lead to more people coming forward with complaints. Research commissioned by Kick It Out last year found 134,400 football-related racist and other discriminatory posts on social media in six months last season, dwarfing the 284 incidents of alleged discrimination actually reported to Kick It Out.
