Nigel Clough backs social media boycott against discrimination

Nigel Clough said he was fully backing this weekend's social media boycott by a coalition of English football's largest governing bodies and organisations, including the Football Association, Premier League, EFL, Women's Super League and Kick It, in a show of solidarity against racism and discrimination.

The message is loud and clear this weekend!

But Clough did not feel it should only be football doing it and called upon everyone who uses social media to avoid it this weekend in helping hammer home the message after a season of vile online trolling.

Clough admitted the boycott wouldn't affect him and he smiled: “Some of us have been doing it for the last 10 years anyway!

“I think it's not before time. I don't know why everybody doesn't just come off it for a week.

“And I don't think it should just be football people. I think it should be everybody that is concerned about the level of abuse, particularly the kind it is, on social media.

“We can live for a week without social media can't we?”

Clough hopes the social media companies can step up their controls to weed out the problem.“I don't know enough about it to know what social media companies can do about it. But I am aware of people saying they can do more,” he said.

“They have a certain responsibility, as everyone does in society, to do what they can to combat it.”

The FA Women's Super League, FA Women's Championship, Professional Footballers' Association, League Managers Association, PGMOL, Kick It Out, Women in Football and the Football Supporters' Association will also suspend all use of their social media accounts from 3pm tomorrow (Friday) until 11.59pm on Monday.