Canada coach not surprised by level of social media abuse directed at female players

“Social media training and how we protect our players is really really important,” Priestman said Tuesday from Zurich. “But it definitely didn’t surprise me, because I think it’s the world in which we live in.”

The report analyzed abusive content from all the major social media platforms during the Women’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand in July and August. FIFA said 5.1 million posts and comments in 35 different languages were analyzed. More than 400,000 comments were reported and hidden.

The report said the U.S. and Argentina were the teams most targeted for abuse. The report listed the 10 most-targeted teams, with Canada not featuring in the list.

Priestman said the Canadian team culture has helped shelter her players.

“I think we have a pretty good team policy,” she said. “I know for myself, coming in with Canada, we won’t talk about anything that’s in the media in our environment. That’s because you’ve got some very good, experienced players who’ve brought in a culture of, when you’re in a tournament, being off social media or at least trying to have a team policy around how we use that.”

The goal is “to stay present and on our path rather than maybe being deviated by the opinions of others.”

Canada coach not surprised by level of social media abuse directed at female players

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