England players to come off social media during Euro 2024 to avoid abuse

England players will not be given guidance over whether or not to log out of their social media accounts during the European Championship, despite the spike in abuse players receive during major tournaments.

Telegraph Sport understands that some players intend to leave their accounts dormant during the tournament to avoid seeing negativity and abuse.

But the Football Association and manager Gareth Southgate have no plans to issue any advice or guidelines over the issue.

It is understood that Southgate’s view is that his England players are experienced and old enough to make a personal choice over social media, which is backed up by the FA.

Internally, there is a recognition that social media could be a negative influence for the squad during the Euros but players will make their own decisions.

A study showed that captain Harry Kane was the most abused England player on X during the World Cup group stages in 2022, accounting for nearly three out of 10 negative tweets directed at team members.

England players were sent 1,546 abusive tweets during the group stages of the last World Cup, according to analysis by the Alan Turing Institute, accounting for two per cent of the more than 75,000 tweets mentioning players for the national team.

Kane shut himself away from social media at the 2018 World Cup and, speaking during that tournament, said: “For me, it’s to stay away from the hype of it all. I was so excited about the Euros, being on Twitter all the time or being on news apps. You want to see what everyone is talking about.

“But it had a negative effect because I was reading too much. I was thinking too much. I feel like I am at my best when I am free in my mind, playing football. This tournament I’ve changed that and stayed off social media as much as possible.”

Declan Rice revealed that he first logged out of his social media account during the last European Championship, so that he could focus on his own performances.

Speaking in 2021, Rice said: “I have just deleted Twitter, I did it after the Croatia game, nothing bad, I just thought, I like Twitter, I read stuff, I felt for this tournament it was best to come off it and just focus on the tournament and myself.

“Sometimes you can put doubts in your mind about your ability. I had to come off it, I am sure I will be back on it soon.”

Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho all received racist abuse on social media after missing penalties in the shoot-out defeat by Italy in the final of the last Euros.

Southgate has an X account that he has not posted a message from since 2015. Speaking on the subject in the past, the 53-year-old said: “I would always advise players not to use social media too regularly, but that’s the world they live in.

“They are young people and young people live their lives via social media.

“As long as you can rationalise that and not let it affect your happiness and your mood, then that’s fine. You’ve got to allow adults to make adult decisions.”