We don't want you: Kane slams fans directing racial abuse at England stars

England captain Harry Kane on Monday condemned the "vile" racial abuse, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka had to face on social media following the Three Lions' loss in the Euro Cup final

Topics
England | racism in UK | UEFA European Championship

ANI 

Bukayo Saka reacts after failing to score a penalty during a shootout.
Bukayo Saka reacts after failing to score a penalty during a shootout.

captain Harry Kane on Monday condemned the "vile" racial abuse, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka had to face on social media following the Three Lions' loss in the Euro Cup final against Italy.

Italy ended England's dream to win the Euro 2020 here at the Wembley Stadium on Sunday (local time). Azzurri defeated 3-2 on penalties after the normal 90-minute action had finished at 1-1 and even extra time was not able to break the deadlock.

Rashford, Sancho, and Saka all missed the chance to net goals in the penalty shootouts. The English players were then abused on social media.

Kane made it clear if anyone who abuses players is not a fan of the team and the Euro Cup finalists don't want their support too.

"Three lads who were brilliant all summer had the courage to step up & take a pen when the stakes were high. They deserve support & backing not the vile racist abuse they've had since last night. If you abuse anyone on social media you're not an @England fan and we don't want you," Kane tweeted.

England's Association in the early hours of Monday morning also condemned racist abuse of players. "The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media," an official statement read.

"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," it added.

The England team said it felt "disgusted" when the players were subjected to "discriminatory abuse" on social media following the Euro Cup final loss.

Micro-blogging website Twitter has removed over 1000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts after they were found engaging in racial abuse of England players as the Three Lions lost the Euro 2020 final against Italy.

"The abhorrent racist abuse directed at England players last night has absolutely no place on Twitter. In the past 24 hours, through a combination of machine learning-based automation and human review, we have swiftly removed over 1000 Tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating our rules -- the vast majority of which we detected ourselves proactively using technology. We will continue to take action when we identify any Tweets or accounts that violate our policies," a Twitter spokesperson told ANI.

"We have proactively engaged and continue to collaborate with our partners across the football community to identify ways to tackle this issue collectively and will continue to play our part in curbing this unacceptable behaviour -- both online and offline," the spokesperson added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Dear Reader,


Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor

Read our full coverage on England
First Published: Tue, July 13 2021. 20:42 IST