Racist comments after England's football team lost to Italy in Euro final.
Three players on England's football team were subjected to racist comments online after a loss to Italy in Euro final.
Fans across the globe are calling for consequences after England’s loss to Italy in the Euro Tournament on Sunday, July 11. The game went into overtime resulting in lost penalty shots by three black players on England’s team. The 3-2 loss and actions by those players caused an uproar across the country that included racist comments on social media. Upset fans also took to the streets in London, injuring 19 police officers and resulting in more than 40 arrests. The actions by England’s fans have soccer fans in other countries calling for the country to be excluded from the World Cup in 2022.
The racist comments were made on several different platforms against Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka, and Marcus Rashford. England’s Football Association (FA) released a statement on July 12, 2021, addressing the actions on social media and defending the players.
“We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination and are appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media.”
The FA also placed blame at the feet of social media companies and encouraged them to do more to keep racist comments off their platforms and hold users accountable.
“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 the platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse.”
@FIFAcom @UEFA @UEFAcom @EURO2020 MUST BAN @England @premierleague from major tournaments for this act. It is their responsibility to safeguard the lives of people who come to watch live games. Tbey have failed and should never be allowed at the #WorldCup https://t.co/8vA4ej0VzB
— Ogor Wise 🗯 (@OgogoroMonitor) July 12, 2021
The negative comments also made soccer fans around the world question whether or not England should be allowed to participate in the World Cup next Year. On Monday Twitter announced it has had removed 1,000 tweets from its platform and suspended some accounts for violation of its terms of service. Instagram and parent company Facebook said they continually make attempts to remove destructive comments as soon as possible. Police in Britain also announced they would be investigating the sources of the racist comments.
The quadrennial World Cup is scheduled to take place in Qatar beginning on November 21, 2022. FIFA has not yet commented on the actions following the Euro tournament final.
