Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford have been subjected to racist abuse from England fans online after missing penalties in the Three Lions’s Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy.Saka, who missed the crucial penalty in the shoot-out, received abuse on his Instagram account, which was flooded with disgusting monkey emojis.Disgusting…England fans have started going at 19-year old Bukayo Saka after his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 Final. pic.twitter.com/RUnQMiLGS2— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) July 11, 2021 Other fans rallied to support the teenager, promising to get the offensive comments reported and removed.The FA said it was “appalled by the online racism” aimed at some players on social media.”We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team,” a spokesperson said. “We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible.Sancho and Rashford (©REUTERS/Carl Recine)”We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game, but we implore the 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.”The youngster has been one of the stars of the tournament for England, making four appearances and putting in some fantastic displays.Saka was visibly distraught on the Wembley pitch following his miss, with his team-mates going up to console him and later on after the trophy presentation, his family too. Southgate took full responsibility for the penalty defeat and told Saka he would not be left to suffer alone.He told the BBC: ‘It’s down to me, I decided on the penalty takers based on what we did in training. Nobody is on their own, we’ve won together as a team.’Saka took England’s final penalty over more experienced players including Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish.Pundits agreed that Saka was brave for stepping up to take the penalty and urged that the country should get behind him.ITV pundit Gary Neville said that it was ‘heart-breaking’ for Saka. He added: ‘Not only is Gareth Southgate going to need to cuddle him but the whole nation needs to cuddle him. ‘Gone are the days when a penalty taker that misses gets criticised. Everybody’s loved this boy for the last few weeks and we will love him for the next few weeks aswell. ‘He’s been absolutely brilliant, everyone of them have been outstanding through this tournament. That young man (Saka) hold your head high because we’re going to look after him the next few months.’Ian Wright added: ‘He’s more than capable of taking that penalty I don’t think age plays a part in it. He’s brave enough to want to take it.’Should he be, of course he should he’s in the England team because he’s good enough. Obviously I’m devastated for everybody not just Bukayo. ‘He was brave enough to take one, Italy deserve a lot of credit for the way they’ve played this tournament.’
