Kai Havertz was braced for the criticism from the pundits, starting with those on TV and extending to the army of them in the pubs and front rooms across the United Kingdom; across the world, really. Like most footballers, the Arsenal forward accepts it. He knows that he belongs to a performance culture, even if it grates when the former professionals who have previously worn the shirt pile in with stuff that is surely a little too constructive. Where is the line? It is the question that pounds.
It would be crossed grievously after Arsenal’s FA Cup defeat by Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Havertz had suffered, missing two clear chances and the decisive kick in the penalty shootout. He had also won a controversial penalty during normal time, which was missed by his teammate Martin Ødegaard and surely provoked United’s official X account into tweeting about “justice” when it was all over. That went into the mix, too.
Like most footballers, Havertz can handle the abuse when it comes directly for him, however abhorrent it is – or, at least, he says he can. He has developed the ability to compartmentalise. But now it came for his wife, Sophia, who is pregnant with their first child. This was another level, a different emotional challenge.
Sophia would post screenshots of two messages sent to her on Instagram. The first said they intended to “slaughter” her unborn baby. The second said they hoped she had a miscarriage. There were others. It is known that some of the messages came from Arsenal fans – if the people who sank to such depths can be included as such. Any season-ticket holders or members will have their tickets and privileges revoked.
The Hertfordshire police force has opened inquiries, pushed to do so by Arsenal, who have a reputation for being extremely proactive in this area. Will any of the perpetrators end up in court? Probably not. It is more likely they will be cautioned and on we move.
It has been a depressing week for English football. On the same day, the Tamworth forward Chris Wreh ought to have been elated at playing against Tottenham in the FA Cup and taking them to extra time; the non-league club would eventually lose 3-0. Instead, he opened his Instagram account to find a racially abusive message, containing mentions of the N-word.
Like Sophia Havertz, he shared the message to highlight the horror. “Sadly, this happens all too often,” Wreh said. And yet he took another stand, making himself unavailable for his team’s Birmingham Senior Cup tie on Tuesday night after feeling that Tamworth had not supported him. Wreh said he was “disappointed” by the lack of a public statement from them, claiming only one club official had been in contact since he uploaded the screenshot to say they wanted to “keep the matter internal”.
On Wednesday Tamworth said in a statement they were liaising with their football officer and policing partners, that the manager, Andy Peaks, “has been and continues to be in communication with Chris throughout this deplorable racial posting” and that they would “continue to support Chris with the extensive work that’s going on behind the scenes to bring the person responsible to justice … Racist abuse will never be tolerated and will be thoroughly investigated.”
The experiences of Havertz and Wreh are representative of a much wider problem. Just because other players’ stories have not entered the public domain does not mean this type of base abuse on social media is not happening in the background. All of the time. For the black players, it often carries a racist dimension.
Havertz has had repeated death threats in England; first at Chelsea, now Arsenal. It is something other players have endured. The Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings, for example, was threatened online last November after he mistakenly picked up the ball to concede the penalty in his team’s 1-0 Champions League loss at Club Brugge.
On a much lower level, what happened to Havertz last Halloween is an open secret at Arsenal. People turned up outside his house and sang his Waka, Waka song. They rang the doorbell. They wanted him to come out for a photo. To be clear, there was no bad energy and it did not escalate. It was supporters wanting to meet one of their heroes. How did they get his address? Who knows?
But it talks to how some fans have come to see their players as almost belonging to them, to be treated like objects rather than people. Where is the line? Perhaps the feeling is related to how the players are more visible and accessible on social media, with the same thing applying to their partners and family members.
There was another strand to it all on Sunday, a real cheap shot that was felt keenly at Arsenal. At about the time that Havertz’s wife was sent the hate to her phone, the Domino’s Pizza UK account piped up on X. Above a photo of Havertz in his Arsenal kit, it wrote: “Sorry if we’ve missed any orders tonight. We’ve just had this guy start.”
Here was a multinational company breaching image rights law to draw attention to its brand with what can only be described as terrible timing. Moreover, it is a company that takes mental health seriously if its Minds & Meals campaign in Australia is anything to go by. According to its channels, the charity is to “help those navigating life’s greatest challenges. With over 80% of Domino’s team members under the age of 25, we recognise the importance of prioritising youth mental health in our communities.”
after newsletter promotion
Apart from, it appears, when it comes to a young footballer. Then, it seems, all bets are off. The Domino’s UK account is all about the banter. At the start of the season, it picked up on a quote from the Manchester United winger Antony, who had promised to deliver goals and assists. Its response? “Wouldn’t trust him to deliver a pizza.” You get the drift.
Arsenal contacted Domino’s to express unhappiness about the Havertz tweet and it was taken down on Friday.
Domino’s is not alone in this space. There is also the bookmaker Paddy Power, whose publicity stunts can bring collateral damage. Remember their spoof Sue Gray report into how United’s Harry Maguire cost £80m? Very funny. Unless you were Maguire.
Brands that want to engage about football on social media sometimes find the most successful moves involve treating the players as cartoons, turning them into memes. It is borderline bullying. But hey, they earn so much money, they can take it. And look at the numbers. The Domino’s tweet about Havertz got 6.9m views.
To Havertz, a cool, intelligent guy with a social conscience, it is sticks and stones; the insults will never hurt him. He is way past caring. “You’re shit. Go back to Germany.” Whatever. He has heard them all. He has zero time to expend the energy on it and, as such, he is like Mings and Maguire and so many others; always presenting a steely front.
And yet when the Professional Footballers’ Association carried out its annual member wellbeing survey last season, 28% of the 1,107 players to respond cited online abuse as something that affected their mental health. The figure has gone up each year.
There are those who urge the players to come off social media, to switch off their phones, but a burying of heads is not the answer, not least because it is impractical. Internalising has its problems, too – especially now it is crossing over to affect family members.
The issue can seem insoluble. The social media companies have their filters and reporting protocols but they are mainly reactive. The Crown Prosecution Service needs the players to assist them in order to secure convictions but many question whether they would get the desired outcome. It must surely lie with ourselves to recognise the game’s tribal impulses and retain our basic humanity.
Source: theguardian.com
