If Soccer Clubs Harness Their Power, Fans Can Change The World

Former England and Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand says that soccer fans have the power to change the world and if soccer clubs have the bravery to “step out from the norm”, they can harness this fan power.

He was speaking on the impact of social media after Crystal Palace recently became the first Premier League club to join the new WeAre8 social media platform.

WeAre8, according to its press release, places power back into users’ hands and gives them more control over the content they see. Ferdinand, who has also joined the app, says Crystal Palace’s decision to join “a platform that wants to eliminate hate and use social media to create real world change” shows that the Premier League club has a duty of care to its fans.

His backing for the app comes from the failure of social media giants like Facebook and Instagram to eliminate hate speech, which he says he thinks the big platforms are capable of stopping but lack the desire.

Sometimes, like in the case of the racist abuse received by England’s penalty takers at Euro 2020, these cases get highlighted in the media, but Ferdinand says there are “much more cases going on that people just aren’t talking about because they aren’t the biggest names in the world.”

When visiting Crystal Palace, Rio Ferdinand met with head coach Patrick Vieira. The two had many “big hard battles” during their playing career, with Ferdinand saying that when he was at West Ham United, he thought Vieira dominated matches against them for Arsenal, but matches between the Gunners and Manchester United were “a bit more of an even keel.”

They have a lot in common when it comes to their views about social media though, especially the need to protect their young children from images and videos that they have no control over.

Ferdinand says that Vieira has been looking for an “antidote” to this problem. He added that he also didn’t feel comfortable about whether the content that is driven towards his children is the right type of content for kids, adding that “a lot of the time, it isn’t.”

He also said that Vieira mentioned how online abuse can affect the mood of the dressing room when some players pick up their phones as soon as they’re in the dressing room and can’t fail to see comments about their performance.

That’s one of the reasons why he joined the Weare8 platform, which he says has a “different energy” to other platforms because “you haven’t got the people who can come on and hate and dislike and change your day with one comment.”

When it comes to tackling issues like online abuse, Ferdinand says he wants to use soccer and his profile to empower people and bring them together to address the world’s biggest problems. He says soccer is evolving and fans have “so much more power than they know” and that they can play a part and change the world.