As if the recent social media abuse of Man.Utd’s black players along with Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger wasn’t bad enough, we now have a referee having to step down from next weekend’s top flight matches for much the same reason.

Referee Mike Dean has asked not to be considered for any of next weekend’s fixtures on the basis of abusive messages and death threats he and his family have received in the wake of some of his recent decisions.

Not sure what can be done to prevent these social media morons from peddling their hate, but something has to happen. We can’t continue like this and maybe the ‘rights’ of this loathsome minority will have to be sacrificed in order to protect the standards of decency and tolerance most of us manage to by.