A 59-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of malicious communications in relation to some of the racist and abusive messages sent to England international Jess Carter during Euro 2025.
The 27-year-old defender revealed during the tournament in Switzerland that she had been subject to racist slurs on her social media accounts since the tournament began.
The FA contacted UK police when it was informed of the abuse Carter has been subjected to, and the un-named man from Great Harwood in Lancashire has since been apprehended. He has been released under investigation while enquiries continue.
An investigation was launched by the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) after Carter revealed the scale of the abuse following England’s quarter-final win over Sweden.
Cheshire Constabulary chief constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chief Council (NPCC) lead for football policing, said: “The messages directed towards Jess Carter were appalling and I would like to commend her for standing up to this abuse and assisting with our investigation.
“Nobody should be subjected to such disgusting abuse, and I expect that today’s arrest will be the first of many over the coming months.
“We want to make it clear that racist abuse of this nature will not be tolerated. Everyone is responsible for what they do and say, and we want to ensure offenders cannot hide behind a social media profile to post vile comments.”
At the time of Carter’s public statement, tributes poured in from far and wide including from her Lionesses team-mates and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Research from SentientSports GuardianAI went on to find that Carter had been the player targeted with the most negativity on social media during the penalty shoot-out win over Sweden, with 9.8 per cent of abusive posts aimed at her.
On the back of the abuse, the Lionesses collectively decided to stop taking a knee ahead of matches during the tournament.
In her initial statement on July 21, Carter said: “From the start of the tournament I have experienced a lot of racial abuse. Whilst I feel every fan is entitled to their opinion on performance and result I don’t agree or think it’s ok to target someone’s appearance or race.
“As a result of this I will be taking a step back from social media and leaving it to a team to deal with.
“As ever I am grateful for all of the support from the genuine fans but I am taking this measure to protect myself in a bid to keep my focus on helping the team anyway I can. Hopefully speaking out will make the people writing this abuse think twice so that others won’t have to deal with it.
“We have made some historic changes with this Lionesses squad that I am so proud to be a part of and my hope is that by speaking out about this it will make another positive change for all. I’m now looking forward and focusing on putting all of my energy into helping my team.”
England went on to lift the Euro 2025 trophy in Switzerland, with Carter starting and playing the whole game of the final penalty shoot-out win over Spain.
