British police investigate racist abuse of three England players after Euro loss

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LONDON (AP) British police opened an investigation Monday into the racist abuse of three black players who did not score a penalty in England’s shootout loss to Italy in the Championship final Europe.

Metropolitan Police have condemned unacceptable abuse by Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, and said they will investigate offensive and racist social media posts published shortly after Italy won the shooting 3-2 on Sunday after a 1-1 draw. A Rashford mural on the wall of a cafe in South Manchester was also marred with graffiti as a result of the game.

The racist abuse, which has been condemned as ‘unforgivable’ by England coach Gareth Southgate, has led to calls for social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, to do more to track down the perpetrators of the abuse.

The three targeted players are part of a young England squad which has been widely praised for its diversity and social awareness. Rashford, for his part, has been at the forefront of a campaign against child poverty, which has convinced the UK government to restore free lunches for thousands of poor children amid the coronavirus pandemic.

We have been a beacon in bringing people together, allowing people to identify with the national team, and the national team represents everyone and so this unity must continue, Southgate said on Monday.

The abuse was widely condemned, Prince William, president of the English Football Association, saying he was sickened by the racism targeting English players.

It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this heinous behavior, he wrote on Twitter. It must stop now and everyone involved must be held accountable.

Although British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said those responsible for these appalling abuses should be ashamed of themselves, he has been criticized for encouraging those who booed the England team for kneeling before their matches to protest racial injustice.

Johnsons spokesperson last month said the Prime Minister was focusing more on action than gesture. This comment led to much criticism that Johnson was indeed encouraging those who booed to continue. Three days later, his spokesperson changed tack, saying the prime minister respected everyone’s right to peaceful protest and to voice their feelings in the face of injustice and that he wanted to cheer on the team, not boo.

Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labor Party, accused Johnson of a lack of leadership for failing to call boos from the England squad.

The Prime Minister did not call it and the actions and inactions of the leaders have consequences, so I am afraid the Prime Minister’s words ring hollow today, he said.

Gary Neville, former Manchester United player and now television commentator, said he was not surprised that the three players who did not convert their penalties were targeted for racist abuse and also called Johnson.

The prime minister said it was okay for the people of this country to boo the players who try to promote equality and defend themselves against racism, he told Sky News. It starts at the very top and so for me, I wasn’t at all surprised to wake up this morning to these headlines.

In recent years, football authorities in England have joined with players in trying to tackle racism both in sport at all levels and in society as a whole.

The English federation said it would provide the players concerned with all possible support and that it would put pressure on the authorities to obtain the most severe penalties possible “for anyone found responsible for the abuse.

We will continue to do all we can to eliminate discrimination, but we urge the government to act quickly and pass the appropriate legislation so that this abuse has real consequences, he said.

Social media companies, he said, must step up and take responsibility and take action to ban attackers from their platforms to ensure that their platforms are “free from this kind of heinous abuse.”

Facebook, owner of Instagram, said Monday it was trying to remove harmful content as quickly as possible and encouraged people to use the tools it offers to block abuse.

We quickly removed comments and reports of abuse of English footballers last night and continue to take action against those who break our rules, ”he said in a statement.

Twitter said heinous racist abuse had no place on its platform, adding that it had deleted more than 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating its rules.

We will continue to take action, Twitter said, “when we identify tweets or accounts that violate our policies.

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More AP football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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