#Enough: PFA launches Anti-Racism campaign; Gareth Bale, Danny Rose, host of other footballers and clubs join hands

The game of football has been a source of joy for countless individuals across the globe. The sport cuts across boundaries and brings people together. Yet, football hasn’t been able to clamp down on the regular occurrences of racist abuse with those slurs growing in frequency recently.

Several players have been subject to racist slanders over the years and the 2018-19 season hasn’t been any different. English footballers, Danny Rose, Raheem Sterling and Callum Hudson-Odoi are just three of the few who’ve been subjected to inexplicable acts of racism.

Rose even went as far as saying that he couldn’t wait to hang up his boots so that he doesn’t have to go through the ordeal each time he takes the pitch.

Even after the Champions League action in mid-week, players of the ilk of Ashley Young and Chris Smalling were the target of racist insults on social media.

Thus, it has been appalling to see the punishments (or the lack of it) meted out by the sport’s apex bodies and the social media authorities.

Fortunately, though, the Professional Footballers Association have taken matters into their own hands and launched an anti-racism campaign of their own. The campaign named ‘#Enough’ seeks to curb the rampant racism in the game of football.

Simone Pound, Head of Equalities at the PFA, quipped: "Football has the power to do so much good in the world. We must always try to use the sport's popularity and influence to make positive change."

Rose, too echoed the sentiments of Pound when he said: “I don't want any future players to go through what I've been through in my career. Collectively, we are simply not willing to stand by while too little is done by football authorities and social media companies to protect players from this disgusting abuse.”

The movement encourages footballers to boycott all their social media accounts from 9am on the 19th of April to 9am on the 20th of April.

A host of high-profile players, including Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, have already done so and in the process, indicated the solidarity players have in tackling the demon of racism.

The beautiful game definitely doesn’t have a place for any sort of racist taunts or jibes. Yet, it is disheartening to see that the problem hasn’t been taken care of more efficiently so far.

However, with the PFA acting as the beacon for this fight, one only hopes that the social media accounts and bodies like FIFA and UEFA take a cue and start being more proactive in their punishments.