Police investigate racist abuse of three black players of England’s national football team after European Championship defeat

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London – Three black players of England’s national football team were victims of racist abuse online after England lost to Italy in the European Championship final on Sunday night. The players – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka – helped the England team through the tournament but missed penalty shots in the final game against Italy.

The abuses have been condemned by leaders across the country, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the Football Association, who called on social media companies to ” take responsibility and take action to ban abusers. . “

“The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism which targets some of our English players on social media,” the group said in a statement. “We couldn’t be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behavior is unwelcome to follow the team. We will do our utmost to support the players concerned while demanding the harshest penalties possible for any responsible person. “

England team manager Gareth Southgate called the abuse “unforgivable” and the London Metropolitan Police said they would investigate.

“We are aware of a number of offensive and racist comments on social media directed against footballers following the # Euro2020 final. This abuse is completely unacceptable, it will not be tolerated and will do under investigation, ”police said in a statement on Twitter. .

Throughout the European Football Championship tournament, England squad players knelt at the start of matches to protest racial inequalities. Sometimes the spectators booed the gesture. Earlier this year, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came under fire for not immediately condemning the boos.

New trends

Soccer players in England started kneeling ahead of games in March of last year following the murder of George Floyd in the United States and the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Late Sunday and early Monday, some supporters attempted to drown out racist abuse online by flooding the three players’ Instagram accounts with positive comments and reporting the abuse.

Twitter reportedly said it deleted more than 1,000 tweets and suspended a number of accounts.

“Last night’s heinous racist abuse has absolutely no place on Twitter,” a spokesperson said, according to media reports.

Facebook, owner of Instagram, said in a statement that “it quickly removed comments and accounts pointing to abuse against England footballers last night and we will continue to take action against those who break our rules,” according to the reports.

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