Who Is Protecting the People Around Your Athletes?

When an athlete receives a death threat online, most sporting organisations know a response is needed. There may be a safeguarding policy to follow or a process for reporting the content. But what happens when the abuse reaches someone else? An athlete’s partner might start receiving messages from the same accounts, their children could be mentioned in threatening posts, or a manager who steps in to help might become a target too.

These people may have no public profile of their own, yet they can find themselves caught up in the abuse simply because of their connection to an athlete. It raises an important question for clubs and federations: how far does their response extend when the person being targeted is no longer the athlete?

When the abuse reaches home

Former international rugby referee Wayne Barnes has spoken about how personal this can become. In an account shared with Ofcom, he described how the abuse he received after high-profile matches spread to his family. Barnes was not active on social media himself, but his wife was, and she read the messages first-hand before becoming a target in her own right, receiving personal attacks and threats of sexual violence because of her association with him. As he put it, “You don’t mind people abusing you, but you want to protect your family.”

His experience shows how far abuse can travel from the person who first attracted it, and how little support the people caught up in it may have compared with a professional athlete. For a club or federation, a threat directed at a partner may be just as serious as one aimed at the athlete, and the staff member handling the incident may need support of their own.

Where the policy runs out

Most organisations have clear procedures for an athlete’s official accounts, but far less clarity around personal profiles, family members or staff who become involved. A policy can set out how an incident should be reported without saying who is watching for the next one, who decides whether a threat needs escalating, or where an athlete’s partner should turn if they are targeted.

When those responsibilities are unclear, the response tends to fragment. One person saves screenshots while another reports accounts and tries to work out whether a threat is credible, and in the meantime the abuse carries on elsewhere and reaches new people. No sporting organisation can prevent every threat or take responsibility for every part of an athlete’s private life, but it can be clear about what it will monitor and where people can get help when a situation goes beyond the original target.

Planning for the wider picture

That clarity is easiest to put in place before an incident becomes a crisis. It means deciding in advance who monitors relevant online activity, how abusive content will be identified and removed, and how the response changes if a threat extends to someone else, including the people coordinating it.

Elite by Fleko’s Digital Close Protection helps sporting organisations identify and manage abusive online content, so that athletes and the people around them are not left to find every message themselves and report it when they can. It gives clubs and federations dedicated support in keeping track of how an incident develops and who it is reaching, so that everyone affected can be looked after.

To find out how Elite by Fleko can help your organisation manage online abuse, get in touch with the team.