Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford both missed penalties in England’s penalty shootout
The football association has condemned racist insults against the English players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after the final defeat at the Euro 2020 against Italy.
All three players missed penalties in the 3-2 shootout loss and were targeted on social media after the game.
The FA said it was “appalled” by the abuse.
England’s players went on their knees ahead of the European Championship games to highlight the fight against racial inequality.
“We couldn’t be more clear that anyone behind such disgusting behavior is not welcome to follow the team,” the FA said in a statement.
“We will do everything we can to support the players affected and at the same time demand the toughest penalties for all those responsible.
“We will continue to do everything we can to get discrimination out of the game, but we ask the government to act quickly and bring the appropriate laws in place so that this abuse has real life consequences.
“Social media companies need to take increased responsibility and take action to ban abusers from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution, and help rid their platforms of this type of heinous abuse.”
Rashford highlighted racial slurs received on social media in May after losing the Europa League final to Manchester United.
And last year Sancho was there Sports stars protest against racism after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Social media companies have been criticized for a perceived lack of action against racial abuse on their platforms, and in April Instagram announced a tool that allows users to automatically filter out offensive messages from those they don’t follow.
After numerous cases of online abuse, a number of clubs, players, athletes and sports associations took part in one four day boycott of social media in April to encourage companies to take a stronger stance against racist and sexist abuse.
