Toxic reaction to rainbow jersey prompts Cork City to quit X

The club has discontinued its X presence over a "significant increase in discriminatory and abusive language"

Cork City's new third jersey in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

Toxic online reaction to the recent launch of a ‘rainbow’ third kit was the final straw prompting Cork City to discontinue its presence on the X platform. The club becomes the first League of Ireland club to pull the plug on an account on the network formerly known as Twitter.

In its 'final' post on the network, City announced on Monday that “X is no longer for us”. 

The club last month launched a new third kit featuring a rainbow design across the club badge and sponsors’ logos in support of the LGBTQ+ community, with a minimum of €5,000 from sales going to Belong To, an organisation that supports LGBTQ+ young people.

It said the kit would serve “as a symbol of the club's dedication to diversity, and aims to highlight Cork City FC’s commitment to inclusion for all in sport, while providing tangible support to Cork’s LGBTQ+ youth”.

While the shirt drew plenty of acclaim and the club was widely praised for the initiative, posts promoting the shirt also drew waves of negative comment across social media platforms.

The club said: “Over the last while, like many others, we have noticed a significant increase in discriminatory and abusive language on X.

”While differing opinions should and will always be heard, they cross the line when they are intolerant and downright offensive. We have a duty of care to our players, our staff, our supporters and the wider community, and it is a responsibility that we do not take lightly.

“As a result of this, we have decided that X is no longer for us.” 

German Bundesliga club St Pauli became the first well-known football club to quit X/Twitter in 2024, with Werder Bremen following soon after. Several sporting celebrities followed suit as the network became viewed as a convenient vehicle for hateful commentary.

However, every top-flight club in the UK and Ireland currently maintains an X account. City has almost 57,000 followers on the network so its exit sacrifices one means of engaging with fans on match updates and news. 

Hacking has also become an increasing problem on X. In January this year, Manchester United were forced to issue a statement confirming Bruno Fernandes' account had been hacked and warned followers not to interact with it. Last year, Sheffield United apologised after their X account was hacked and several offensive updates posted. 

Among the victims of a current spate of hacking is the Irish Examiner’s Anthony Daly, who was in contact with X on Monday in an attempt to retrieve his account, which had been taken over by hackers as a vehicle to push a cryptocurrency scheme.

City have asked social media users to follow the club instead on its other channels across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Threads, some of which make it easier to moderate negative posts.