Larne Football Club is joining forces with sporting clubs and organisations across the United Kingdom in boycotting social media this weekend, to raise awareness of ongoing online abuse directed towards players and officials.
The boycott begins on Friday at 3pm, running right through until Monday 3rd May at 23.59.
While it will be disappointing not to be bring you our usual level of matchday coverage, we remind supporters that Saturday’s game away to Crusaders (5.30pm) is being streamed lived by BBC Sport NI on their website, red button and iplayer.
The campaign is running right across the United Kingdom, with the IFA joining the Football Association, Premier League, English Football League and Women’s Super League clubs in England.
The four-day boycott of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is also being supported by a number of other football organisations in the UK, including anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out, clubs in Scotland, the Scottish FA, Scottish Professional Football League and Scottish Women’s Football League.
Larne chairman Gareth Clements said: “We are joining forces with this campaign because we believe online abuse of players, in all its forms, must stop.
“By joining the IFA and other clubs across the UK we hope this will bring the issue to the forefront of people’s minds – not only those who think they can get away with abuse in all its forms, but social media companies who need to do more to prevent it.
“We have seen first hand the detrimental impact abuse can have and we are doing this because we stand with our players in saying enough is enough and football really is for all.”
