Italy is the European champions after seeing off England in the finals that were played yesterday night at the Wembley stadium. This happened thanks to the penalty shoot-out that saw Torino striker Belleti miss his kick and Georgino of Chelsea.
The Azzuri still went on to win the penalties despite losing two because Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and the young arsenal player Bukayo Saka failed to convert their kicks. This caused a huge heartbreak and disappointment for the England team and the nation at large after waiting for over 50years to reach a final in any tournament.
It didn’t happen and as usual, some fans have resorted to racially abusing all the black players that missed the penalty kicks. This is disappointing given the efforts and the hard work that these players put in to take England to the finals for the first time in over 50 years.
The level of intolerance from the English fans to the black players is unacceptable because they easily forget that it was Raheem Sterling that singled handedly dragged them to the finals. The English FA stand against racism has taken another few steps backward after they thought they had made some progress with taking a knee on the pitch before a match to send out a strong message against racial segregation.
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These black players are only in their early 20’s and they are still very young with a future to look forward to. Am very sure in the next Euros, they will be a formidable team with very good players and with some bit of luck, they will be champions.
Let’s not forget that very good teams like France, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium did not make it to the final and for the English fans to behave the way they did last night is disappointing, to say the least. For heaven’s sake, Italy was the better team and deserved to win.
The English FA has released a statement to condemn the racial slurrs directed at the Blackplayers in the English team;
The FA said it was “appalled” by the “online racism” of the three players following the defeat at Wembley.
It added: “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.
“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.
“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.”
