When England were beaten on penalties in the European Championships final last summer, the abuse was instantaneous.
Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho, who had penalties saved, and Marcus Rashford, who missed his effort, were subjected to a torrent of hate-filled messages on social media.
At the time, the racist abuse directed at England’s black players was the most high profile, ugly example of it.
The UK Football Policing Unit said they received 600 reports of racist comments sent to the trio after the defeat. Of those, 207 were judged to be criminal. Among them was 52-year-old Jonathon Best who livestreamed his abuse on Facebook. He was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison in November.
Widescale abuse has become commonplace in the game, leading Manchester City and England striker Raheem Sterling to call it a “disease” in society.
Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha is among the leading voices that have has called for “action”, “education” and “change”.
A 12-year-old boy who sent racist messages to Zaha received education sessions “as part of the restorative justice process”.
That education was delivered by anti-discrimination charity Kick it Out and is one programme that authorities are turning to, to tackle abuse.
Kick it Out’s fan education and engagement manager Alan Bush deals with referrals.
“It’s very much trying to get them to have a look at their behaviour and what they’ve said, to try and get them to understand that the action or the act that they’ve taken part in is offensive, is hurtful and is against the law,” Bush said.
“We’ve done some work with a 12-year-old on a youth conditional caution. He said something nine months ago and he has had three sessions. He has grown from the first session to the third session.”
The programme, which has run for more than two years and has dealt with people aged between 12 and 64 years old, is the only one in football which offered one-on-one “rehabilitative sessions”.
Kick it Out said around 20 per cent of attendees are aged under 18, around 25 per cent are aged between 18 and 30, and those who are over 50 make up 12 per cent.
Bush says he is “careful not to label people” who come into the programme, despite what led to them being there.
“I want them to learn,” said Bush, who has hosted about 60 educational sessions. “I want them to see that they may not see themselves as racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic — but what they are is an individual who has delivered something in the stadium, online, and the act would have been discriminatory.”
People in the programme are made to take responsibility for what they have done, to talk through the reasons for being there and confront other examples of discrimination in the game.
The image of John Barnes back-heeling a banana off the pitch — a picture that captures the abuse the former England and Liverpool forward faced during his career — is one infamous example used. Abuse faced by Saka, Sancho and Rashford last summer has also become part of the course.
“The amount of people that were offended, affected and were horrified at the abuse that went on post-Euros and of course the Euros final, and the few minutes after the final, I think that people look at that and they’re able to understand it, they’re able to put a level of emotion, empathy or a level of understanding on it,” added Bush.
“It links their behaviour to something that was so horrendous and was newsworthy for a significant amount of time. With the majority of people who will be English and will have supported England, I don’t think you were able to get away from that.”
The majority of people that attend sessions do so voluntarily, although some are mandatory as part of a young person’s Youth Conditional Caution. Failure to engage could see the person charged for the initial incident. Referrals can be made through local councils, fans groups and police.
Clubs also access Kick it Out’s services, with individuals almost always already serving a ban. Feedback in a report from Bush helps determine if any ban is overturned. Bush says that as far as he is aware, no-one who has passed through the course has reoffended.
“The idea is we want to see attitude change,” he stressed. “We want to see behaviour change, and we want that to be sustainable.”