Inkerman Private Clients has formed a partnership with Player 4 Player, a consultancy of former players working to protect football players’ interests, protection, image, finances and overall wellbeing.
Inkerman Private Clients says that it will deliver a range of services to help players, and their families, review risks to their personal safety, home and travel security, protection to their personal data, social media and cyber footprint, backed up by Inkerman’s 24/7 operations team of intelligence personnel on an international basis.
Inkerman Private Clients CEO, Gerald Moor says: “We are delighted to be working with Player 4 Player and share the same ethos to providing trusted services that look to protect players and their families on a 24/7 basis. Our aim is to give players that reassurance and peace of mind that everything important to them is protected at all times – allowing players to concentrate on their careers. Sadly, we have seen the consequences of what physical and cyber-attacks can have, and how they can hugely impact personal and professional life thereafter.
“Operating with complete confidentiality and discretion, Inkerman Private Clients protect players against all such attacks – with expert advice, specialist response and comprehensive support being provided at all times.”
And Player 4 Player co-founder Gareth Farrelly said: “We feel this is a very important service for players as these types of incidents can significantly impact their performances, personal life and financial situation. We have chosen to work with Inkerman Private Clients as they are a leader in the field at mitigating security and safety risks to provide clients and their families with peace of mind.”
Background
Last month UK football figures such as Richard Masters, chief exec of the Premier League, wrote an open letter to Twitter and Facebook, asking that they ‘accept responsibility for preventing abuse from appearing’ on those platforms, and that those social media firms go further than they have promised to do, to protect footballers and match officials from online abuse. As for such hateful abuse translating into the physical world, last year a football fan was fined and given a community sentence by magistrates after he was convicted of an offence at a Premier League football ground. As the open letter put it, the ‘relentless flow of racist and discriminatory messages feeds on itself: the more it is tolerated by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, platforms with billions of users, the more it becomes normal, accepted behaviour’.
