Switzerland players are increasingly facing hateful comments on social media during the World Cup.
“Unfortunately, we can now estimate when the risk of a build-up of such despicable comments increases,” a team spokesman told news agency Keystone-SDA.
“In this case, the comment sections on our channels are often proactively blocked.”
After the 1-1 opening draw with Qatar in particular, there had been so many discriminatory messages that the comment function on the association’s social media channels had been deactivated.
“Also because some of the comments were about the players’ skin colour or origin,” the spokesman added.
As soon as comments meet a criminal threshold, the Swiss Football Association forwards them to law enforcement authorities.
Switzerland are still in the tournament and will face Colombia in the last 16 on Tuesday in Vancouver.
Last week, FIFA said that racist comments during the World Cup have increased. Around 11% of all online posts classified as abusive were racist in some way, it said.
That is an increase of 3% compared with the same point at the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022. Around 1,000 social media accounts have been reported to police.
Netherlands players Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber and Crysencio Summerville were racially abused online after missing penalties in the lost round-of-32 match against Morocco. The trio disabled the comment functions on their respective social media accounts.
The Dutch football association (KNVB) condemned the abuse and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in the Netherlands.
