Rangers boycott welcome - but main account at odds and united front is needed

The announcement that Rangers players and management were boycotting social media for a week from Thursday evening was a welcome display of conviction when others, including Uefa, have proved so sadly lacking.

Glen Kamara treatment has prompted a media blackout from Rangers players and management (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The action seemed designed to coincide with Slavia Prague playing in London against Arsenal in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie.

It was uncomfortable viewing watching the Czech Republic team's players and staff celebrate a late equaliser after some of the comments to emerge from the club since Glen Kamara was racially abused by their midfielder Ondrej Kudela towards the end of last month's clash with Rangers

On reflection, it might have been more effective had the Ibrox club simply stopped ALL forms of communication across social media – it quickly became apparent yesterday that their own official site would be tweeting to relay news from their pre-match press conferences as normal.

What would certainly have much more impact are other clubs joining in with this social media blackout. Rangers’ Premiership rivals were all admirably quick to lend their support in the days after the appalling abuse which was directed at Kamara, from Kudela in the first instance and then across social media.

They stood in support then – literally so, with many clubs abandoning the taking-a-knee stance before games in a bid to reset the Black Lives Matters message.

Players and management from other clubs, at all levels, uniting to boycott Twitter, Facebook and other platforms might help convince social media companies of the need for their sites to be far better policed than is clearly the case at present.

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