Sports Fans Are Doing WAY Too Much

Sports fans have been going way too far in their support or their discontent with sports teams. In recent years, sports fans have been getting more and more radical about the teams they hate and love, with more and more fans spreading hate online in response to the referee calls they hate or their favorite team’s loss. In addition to this, moderation on online platforms is decreasing. This has all led to a rampant spread of hate by sports fans that has simply become way too much.

I happen not to like it when people are hated for trivial reasons. I wouldn’t like it if someone said they dislike someone because of something stupid like how they look, or a trivial mistake they made. In fact, I don’t think you could find me a person who does. So when people attack people using racial, sexist, or homophobic remarks over a simple sports game, I think that’s a problem.

According to The Athletic, during the 2025 European Championship final, football teams found themselves facing over 3000 posts containing “hostile or concerning content.” They also found 95 posts that specifically attacked a head coach or player that were flagged as abusive by the platform’s terms and service; however, 99% of those posts remain online. Those 95 posts included racist abuse (42%), misogynistic sentiment (29%), sexual objectification (12%), and anti-LGBTQ+ abuse (11%).

In addition to this, moderation on social media sites is decreasing. According to Catriona Scholes, director of insight at Moonshot, “Fewer moderators are being recruited and retained by the platforms to take this kind of content down. I think that the experience of the players is a reflection of that reality.”

Can you imagine that? People decided to send out 3000 hateful messages with no purpose other than to tear people down. Many of them were hateful remarks that attacked players for their race, gender, and sexuality. Even worse, platforms refuse to take down this blatant hate speech that is spread throughout the platform by sports fans. Social media is allowing a space where people can spread hate from behind the screen, say words they could never say in person. Maybe people are going way too far with their dislike of sports teams because it is being enabled and supported by social media platforms. With moderation on a serious decline, it should not be questioned that sports fans are going way too far with their support and hatred of teams.

Some may argue that the fact that many people are spreading hate speech doesn’t matter, as no one should take those posts seriously. However, these hateful posts can still take a toll on the mental health of players on sports teams. Right before the semi-finals, England defender Jess Carter was so affected by these posts that they decided to step away from social media entirely. Hate speech posts have been shown to affect the mental health of people outside of sports, and the same applies to people inside of sports.

Hate speech is never okay, and sports fans have gone way too far with their hateful posts.