Leeds United's Gjanni Alioski and Arsenal's Nicolas Pepe lastest victims of football's abusive relationship with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

This week it was Gjanni Alioski and Nicolas Pepe coming under attack, online, receiving depraved abuse and threats after an incident in Leeds United’s game against Arsenal.

Alioski’s man-marking, his touch-tight attention, led to a coming together with the Gunners man on the edge of the Leeds penalty area and, incensed, Pepe attempted a headbutt.

There wasn’t a huge amount of contact, but it was a blatant red-card offence and Alioski made sure it was picked up by VAR, going to ground in dramatic fashion and holding his face.

It is perfectly reasonable to criticise Pepe for losing his composure, lashing out and potentially costing his team, just as it is perfectly reasonable to criticise the manner of Alioski’s meeting with the Elland Road turf.

What followed, however, was beyond all reason.

Evil, in the form of racism, homophobia and threats, cascaded into tweets and direct messages on Instagram. The abuse was swiftly and roundly condemned by both clubs and by anyone in their right mind.

Leeds and Arsenal vowed to work with the police and footballing authorities to identify the culprits and bring them to justice and, hopefully, the knock on the door that these trolls deserve will soon be forthcoming. Hopefully it brings home the reality that words have consequences and that abuse of any nature takes a toll on their fellow humans.

Even if the police do catch up with those behind the cowardly, faceless and nameless accounts who targeted Alioski and Pepe, it won’t stem the tide of vitriol from the countless others just like them.

Players past and present have suffered on social media platforms and will continue to – Anton Ferdinand’s tweet promoting his anti-racism documentary was met with racist taunts – because for all the condemning, the sympathy and the encouragement to ‘ignore the trolls’ there is currently no chance of eradicting this blight on the game.

The mentality of someone sending that kind of violent message is so hard to understand, even if kids are behind some of it. Why do they feel it is okay to open up a channel of communication with someone they don’t know personally and try to hurt them?

Racism and abuse abound in online life in general, because we accept anonymity and unaccountability. Social-media platforms need to take immediate action to introduce a strict and traceable form of identity verification at the point of registration, so there are simple and effective mechanisms for identifying and prosecuting law breakers, so there is accountability.

The rest of us can ‘block and move on’ when we spot abusive messages, shun anonymous accounts responsible and leave them to rot in the cesspit their echo chambers will become – although that will not bring the education they so badly need – but people should not feel so free to post them in the first place.

Football has protocols in place, like the player-care policy that kicked in for Leeds and the Premier League to ensure Alioski was not left to process the incident on his own, and the relationship with West Yorkshire Police that enables abuse and threats to be reported and followed up.

But it’s worrying that the game cannot rid itself of hate or the visceral anger. We accept that too and call it passion.

A fan TV channel with a presenter who seethes through gritted teeth, incapable of holding in the fury he feels because of the game, is not healthy or helpful. For young fans consuming every possible source of content about their team, it normalises a loss of control and attaches it to the football experience.

If a game has you foaming at the mouth and draws venom from within you towards your players or the opposition, it’s not because you love your club, it’s because you have an anger problem and the stands or social media are the only places in society where you can get away with behaving that way.

The media has a huge responsibility too. Racial bias, dog-whistle reporting and hysterical click-bait headlines light the blue touch paper and fan abuse into flames.

While we can all do better, disagree with one another with civility or say nothing if we have nothing positive to say, it is time Twitter and Facebook made it clear how they plan to clean up the platforms they give us.