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The bright lights of Wembley Stadium shed upon the field as the players held their breaths owing to a brewing tense final between England and Italy that went into a penalty shootout. The scoreboard read England Vs Italy 1-1. The team who would take home the championship trophy depended on the English player, Bukayo Saka, as he took the penalty shot. The stadium was silent, as the world watched in anticipation. The Italian goalkeeper saves a spot-kick from Bukayo Saka. Italy goes on to lift Euros and leave England in more despair than ever. 

 

What followed was repulsive and sickening behaviour.

Boos echoed through the stadium as the penalty missed by Bukayo Saka, racist acts followed post the final. Players such as Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka all received racist comments on social media, violence outside the stadium, and murals of players such as Marcus Rashford by supporters. Multiple accounts of violence were projected through videos and photographs across social media, various posts and comments were made on social media racially discriminating players. 

It was a morbid scene to behold and a dark day. 

 

What can you do?

The football community must unite to tackle this predicament as unity is the only way this shall cease to exist.

 

1. If you find any account on social media who project such indecent acts of racism, violence, and discrimination, report them. 

2. Try to educate individuals about racial discrimination and violence through multiple ways, including workshops, videos, threads, podcasts,s etc. The more people are educated about the issue, the better for the community. 

3. In terms of sport, support the players instead of shunning them. It takes great courage for a young group of players to come and take penalties at such a high level. Mistakes happen every time, the players will learn from their mistakes. It is high time that supporters should also learn from their mistakes as well. 

 

What are the authorities doing?

Metropolitan Police are investigating the abuse and said: "it will not be tolerated" as per its statement to the BBC. The UK Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson, and the English Football Association have condemned the actions of the individuals. Popular pundit and ex-England International Mr Gary Lineker tweeted about the pathetic actions of the supporters and labelled those who were racially abused as not being England fans. Ex-England international, now pundit, Rio Ferdinand also spoke about the disgraceful actions that occurred after the match, on BBC Sport. 

 

Everybody in this world gets criticised for their mistakes, which is important as people should learn from them. But criticism should not be a tool or a medium utilized for racial abuse and discrimination. There exists a line between constructive criticism and insults, we saw insults and abuse. Constructive criticism provides personal insight and scope for improvement whereas the other ridicules and causes harm more than expected. 

 

We have seen backlash towards England supporters and their entire nation.  Generalizing the entire population would be blatant ignorance. There must be punishment for the ones who are wrong instead of pitting the blame against an entire nation. 

 

There has been immense support for the team and we saw it through various supporters who stood up against racism and took action. Various instances such as the damaged Wall Murals were temporarily fixed by kind supportive messages from the locality. Various surveys indicate more than 50% of the population believe racism to be an issue in sport. 

 

Football unites people and provides the impetus for strength. We associate unity, togetherness, passion, and sportsmanship with football. Why did we forget the years of practice and effort put in by the players to represent their country, at an international level, in a single moment, where luck was at play. Why is one action by a player of a specific race inciting violence? Where has the unity football brought disappeared? The realization of racism becoming an inherent problem was becoming popular over the past decade. It is only up to us to resolve the issue and put a finish to the inherent issue.