English Soccer Players Subjected To Racist Taunts After Missing PKs During EURO 2020 Final

On Sunday, Italy defeated England for the EURO 2020 title with a thrilling win in penalty kicks after England’s Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all missed their shots. After the match, an investigation into racist messages and taunts sent to the African-American players was launched.

According to  The Associated Press, The Metropolitan Police have launched a probe into the “offensive and racist” social media posts targeting Rashford, Sancho and Saka. A mural of Marcus Rashford in his hometown Manchester was also reportedly defaced with racist messages.

“We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team. We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible,” a spokesperson for the English Football Association (FA)  wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.

pic.twitter.com/MQoVHCYUfy

— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) July 12, 2021

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson even spoke on the racist taunts towards English football players, calling it, “appalling abuse.”

Three players on England’s soccer team who missed penalty kicks in the Euro 2020 final became the target of racist attacks on social media.

London’s Metropolitan Police said it would investigate the bigotry, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned. https://t.co/y1A6ux3kR8

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 12, 2021

The English National soccer team would go on to call for government and social media companies to intervene in order to prevent users from making racist posts towards Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka.

“We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game, but we implore government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real life consequences,” the association wrote.

“Social media companies need to step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution and support making their platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse,” it added.

We’re disgusted that some of our squad – who have given everything for the shirt this summer – have been subjected to discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game.

We stand with our players ❤️ https://t.co/1Ce48XRHEl

— England (@England) July 12, 2021

Twitter has called out the racist attacks and claims to have removed ‘over 1000 Tweets’ and permanently suspended some users.

England’s manager, Gareth Southgate, also spoke on the disgusting messages his players were receiving.

“We have been a beacon of light in bringing people together, in people being able to relate to the national team, and the national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue,” Southgate said Monday, according to the AP.

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