Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka suffer racial abuse after missing penalties in defeat against Italy in Euro 2020 final

On July 11, England lost the final of Euro Cup 2020 to Italy. While England fans caused a riot-like situation and riot police had to step in to control them, the misbehaviour and irresponsible racial comments found their way on social media platforms as well.

Three English players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who are of African descent and missed their penalties in the shootout, faced the wrath of the England fans in racial abuse on platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

The violent behaviour of the English fans got them labelled as the sour losers as netizens took screenshots of comments and tweets against the three players of colour and shamed the “fans” for throwing racial slurs and abuses. UK Prime Minister himself came out in support of the players of colour. He said, “This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media. Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1414465103374729220?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Notably, the FA urged the government and social media companies to step up the efforts to stop racial abuses. In a statement, they said, “We will continue to do everything we can to stamp out discrimination out of the game, but we implore government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so the abuse has real-life consequences.”

https://twitter.com/FAspokesperson/status/1414388165431996416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Netizens react to racial attacks

The racist abuse targeted towards the English players was called out by people on social media.

https://twitter.com/Chaseeism/status/1414463275513700355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/nunguaeminem/status/1414364245815222277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/nardosfenta/status/1414448697547632643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/TridentSportsX/status/1414353801398587395?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/TridentSportsX/status/1414499416661180416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

There were too many racial abuses to count.

https://twitter.com/MissMelina7/status/1414362886135336963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/OtiMabuse/status/1414480523918028800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/CheikabaH/status/1414438874412044290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/nasawali_phame/status/1414391596406218760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The abuses were not limited to the fans online. The fans of colour also faced wrath online and in the real world as the disgraceful English fans chose violent attacks to vent their frustration.

https://twitter.com/BenjaminEnfield/status/1414375048371134474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The violent attacks became more disturbing as a person was thrown into the river.

https://twitter.com/ps6811/status/1414372153420550146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Notably, there had been reports confirming that ticketless English fans had forced their way into Wembley Stadium to witness the match that led to chaos. In the aftermath of the riot-like situation, the area around the stadium was left with tons of garbage thrown by the angry English fans.