A BRADFORD Premier League official is amongst the most abused referees online across world sport.
Martin Atkinson, of Drighlington, ranks third in the list created by Bookmakers.com
Atkinson received a total of 6,153 posts in the last year with his worst game being West Ham United v Manchester United on September 19 where over 4,000 negative comments were directed at him.
Social listening data was analysed across all major social media platforms. This revealed the Premier League is the most toxic sporting league in the world, with ten out the top 20 referees officiating in the competition.
Premier League referee Anthony Taylor received more abuse than any other over the last 12 months (10,141 posts).
Elsewhere in the list, Paul Tierney (4,080 posts), Mike Dean (3491 posts), Michael Oliver (3135 posts) and Craig Pawson (2557 posts) rank fourth, sixth, seventh and tenth.
However, it’s not just the Premier League. The NFL’s Sarah Thomas received the second worst online trolling, with 6,288 comments aimed her way.
The figures illustrate direct abuse aimed at each referee. With the understanding that abuse towards referees and/or umpires isn’t always aimed directly by name (e.g. ‘this ref is….’), these figures are likely much higher.
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