Manchester United players make up most of the Premier League’s most abused players.
According to a report by Ofcom and the Alan Turing Institute, eight of the 10 most abused players in England play for the Old Trafford club.
Of these players, galactico Cristiano Ronaldo and captain Harry Maguire receive more Twitter abuse than any other Premier League footballer.
In the report, in which over two million tweets during the first half of the 2021-2022 season were analyzed, over 60,000 abusive messages were discovered.
As per the report, an abusive tweet was defined as a message that “threatens, insults, derogates, dehumanizes, mocks or belittles a player” and also includes “slurs, negative stereotypes, excessive use of profanities and angry emoji.”
From this analysis, it was discovered that hate and abuse were overwhelmingly concentrated on a few individuals, most of whom are current United players.
Half of the abuse was directed at twelve players. The report also revealed that more than 300 abusive tweets are sent to Premier League footballers every day.
Ronaldo tops the list, being on the end of the most online abuse. The 37-year-old was sent 12,520 abusive messages within the period analyzed.
The Red Devils captain and England international Maguire came a close second to the Portuguese, amassing 8,954 abusive tweets in a horror campaign that saw the defender held responsible by the fans for numerous defensive lapses that caused the team to concede goals.
Marcus Rashford and playmaker Bruno Fernandes came third and fourth respectively on the list.
A new report from Ofcom shows Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire as the most abused Premier League players on Twitter #mulive [bbc] pic.twitter.com/HKSedz9FSc
— utdreport (@utdreport) August 2, 2022
Kevin Bakhurst, director for broadcasting and online content at Ofcom on the report, remarked, “These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game.”
“Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort.”
Other players on the list include Harry Kane, Fred, Jesse Lingard, Jack Grealish, Paul Pogba, and David de Gea.
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