After Defeat, England’s Black Soccer Players Face
a Racist Outburst
The social media bigotry, directed at three players
who missed penalty kicks in the Euro 2020 final, was condemned by Prime
Minister Boris Johnson and most everyone else.
Mark
Landler
By Mark
Landler
July 12,
2021
Updated
7:10 a.m. ET
LONDON —
England wrapped its arms around its national soccer team the morning after its
history-making run ended in heartbreaking defeat. But an ugly eruption of
racist gibes against some of its young Black players was a reminder that not
everyone glories in the diverse portrait of the country that this team
reflects.
London’s
Metropolitan Police said on Monday that they would investigate “offensive and
racist social media comments being directed towards footballers,” following the
game, which England lost to Italy after three players — Marcus Rashford, Jadon
Sancho and Bukayo Saka — missed penalty kicks.
The three
players, who are Black, are among the youngest members of a youthful team that
had captured the national imagination over the last four weeks as it swept into
the final game of the European soccer championship, England’s first crack at
victory in a major tournament in 55 years.
The racist
attacks, the likes of which have plagued European soccer for years, drew
immediate condemnation from leaders including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and
Prince William, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, who is president of England’s
Football Association.
“This
England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social
media,” Mr. Johnson declared on Twitter. “Those responsible for this appalling
abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”
Others
called on Twitter and Instagram to crack down on the use of their platforms to
traffic in racist language and tropes. Some pointed out that the England
players had made campaigning for a more just and equitable society a central
part of their message, kneeling before games to protest racial injustice.
“This is
why we take the knee,” David Lammy, a Labour Party member of Parliament who is
Black, said on Twitter. “Praying for a better future — worthy of the values,
beauty and respect exemplified by every single England player.”
In another
era, this kind of loss — so numbingly familiar to England’s long-suffering fans
— might have stoked a round of recrimination beyond the recesses of social
media. But the British newspapers were united in their support, focusing on the
team’s inspiring run as much as its spirit-crushing defeat.
“It hurts …
but we’re so proud of you,” said The Daily Express. “Pride of Lions,” said The
Sun, playing off the nickname derived from the team’s emblem, the Three Lions.
“It all ends in tears,” said The Daily Mail, which, like its rivals, ran a
full-page photo of the manager, Gareth Southgate, consoling a distraught Mr.
Saka after Italy’s goalkeeper saved his kick.
Mr.
Southgate shouldered the responsibility for the loss, saying he made the
substitutions that sent two of the young players on to the field only minutes
before the end of extra time to face the immense pressure of a penalty
shootout.
“We decided
to make the changes near the end of the game, and we win and lose together as a
team,” he said to the broadcaster ITV. “That was the order that we came to. But
that’s my call.”
For Mr.
Southgate, it was a hauntingly familiar denouement. In 1996, as a player on the
England team, he missed a fateful penalty kick against Germany in the semifinal
of the European championship. His misfortune took its place in a litany of near
misses, early exits and blown chances that have bedeviled England.
There were
other reminders of the rougher side of England’s soccer history. Two hours
before the game, as excitement outside Wembley Stadium built to a fever pitch,
hundreds of people breached a security barrier and squeezed through turnstiles
without tickets.
Security
guards and police, some on horseback, tried to hold back the crowd but appeared
powerless to stop them from swarming the grounds. It was another cause of
criticism for a police department that has come under fire recently for a
series of tactical blunders and questionable conduct.
“There was
a breach of security at Wembley Stadium, which resulted in a small number of
people getting into the stadium without a ticket,” a spokesman for the police
acknowledged, after the stadium authorities initially denied it had happened.
During the
second half, a spectator ran out on to the field and had to be tackled by four
security guards before he was escorted off the turf. Earlier, during the
playing of Italy’s national anthem, there was booing in the crowd — a
nationalistic display that has marred several games played in London.
To some
public-health experts, the 60,000-plus people who packed Wembley looked like a
potential superspreader event, at a time when Britain is already reporting more
than 30,000 new coronavirus cases a day.
In the cold
aftermath of the loss, Mr. Johnson prepared to tell the country on Monday that
while the government was moving ahead with plans to lift most of the remaining
restrictions on July 19, it would urge, but not require, people to keep wearing
face masks in confined spaces like buses and subways.
For much of
the country, England’s performance in the tournament was a unifying event — a
much-needed balm after 16 months of lockdowns and four and a half years of
bickering over Brexit. From Mr. Johnson to the queen, the team drew expressions
of support, excitement and pure delight.
Yet its
players, who have used their fame to stake out political positions, have also
aroused mixed emotions — and not just among the racist subculture lurking
online. Mr. Johnson’s home secretary, Priti Patel, refused to condemn people
for booing them when the team kneels before games.
Lee
Anderson, a Conservative member of Parliament who was elected in 2019 in a wave
of pro-Brexit support for Mr. Johnson’s party, vowed not to watch England games
as long as the players knelt, which they did again on Sunday, joined by the
Italian team.
“I’m a
massive England supporter, I made a statement, I stick to my words,” he said to
the conservative news channel GB News. “I’m not going to watch the game but I’m
going to support the team.”
Mr.
Rashford, a British-born Manchester United forward of Caribbean heritage, led a
campaign that forced Mr. Johnson to reverse course on a plan to suspend free
lunches for children of poor families during the pandemic. After the game, some
on social media urged Mr. Rashford to focus on penalty kicks, not politics.
Mr.
Southgate, however, has been unstinting in his support of his socially minded
players. In a “Dear England” letter published on a sports website last month,
he wrote that young people would inevitably have a different view of being
English than people of his generation.
“On this
island, we have a desire to protect our values and traditions — as we should —
but that shouldn’t come at the expense of introspection and progress,” Mr.
Southgate said. “It’s clear to me that we are heading for a much more tolerant
and understanding society, and I know our lads will be a big part of that.”
Mark
Landler is the London bureau chief. In 27 years at The Times, he has been
bureau chief in Hong Kong and Frankfurt, White House correspondent, diplomatic
correspondent, European economic correspondent, and a business reporter in New
York. @MarkLandler
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