The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, has come out to show support to Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka who were subjected to racial abuse after losing penalties in Euro 2020 final.
Rashford played his kick against the post, while Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma saved that of Sancho and Saka to deny England the opportunity of winning their first European Championship.
After Italy defeated England in Euro 2020 final on Sunday, July 11, English fans took to social media to racially abuse the trio for failing to convert their spot-kicks.
In reaction to the viral attack on the three players, the English FA issued a statement stressing that the online attack on the players were embarrassing. Hence, the FA stressed that those who racially attacked the players don’t deserve to be the supporters of the national team.
“We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behavior is not welcome in following the team”, the statement read.
“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 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.”
Also, the Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, announced that the Metropolitan Police is investigating the online abuse and said: “it will not be tolerated”.
He went on to describe the racial abuse as being awful, noting that the racists should be ashamed of themselves for attacking the players.
“This England team deserves to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media,” the Prime Minister said.
“Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”
Gianluigi Donnarumma wins Player of Euro 2020 award
Meanwhile, the goalkeeper of Italy, Gianluigi Donnarumma was named the player of the tournament after helping Italy to conquer England in the final of Euro 2020.
The 22-year-old goalkeeper who is on the verge of leaving AC Milan to join Paris Saint Germain saved two penalties in the final of the tournament.
Before then, the Italian goalkeeper kept three clean sheets throughout the tournament which was enough to earn him the award. Hence, he became the second goalkeeper in the history of the European Championship to win the player of the tournament award. The first goalkeeper that won the award was Peter Schmeichel in 1992.
“We were amazing. We didn’t give up an inch”, Donnarumma said after helping Italy to conquer England on Sunday night.
“We did it from scratch, we are a fantastic team and we deserve this success.”
