Protecting the community: online abuse reduced at 2025/26 UEFA club competition finals

As part of our efforts to protect players, coaches, referees and teams from abuse, and in collaboration with social media companies Meta, TikTok and X, we succeeded in removing and restricting 93% (220) of reported posts related to this season’s four club competition finals that took place between 20 and 31 May.

A total of 237 posts across social media were identified for review – a 40% reduction compared with the same period during the 2024/25 club finals – with players the primary targets, accounting for 84% of the abuse, followed by coaches (4%), teams (11%), and referees (1%).

A total of 163 accounts were flagged as part of the monitoring scheme, with individuals or groups targeted by abuse also informed so that they could take further action if required.

The identified posts were classified as hate speech (89%), racism (9%), homophobia (1%) and sexism (1%).We first launched a dedicated platform to monitor and report online abuse ahead of UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 as part of a multi-season investment. This marked the first time a sports governing body had actively monitored online abuse and collaborated with social media platforms to remove offensive posts. The initiative will continue across all future UEFA finals and final tournaments.