British police have opened investigations into the racist abuse of three players who missed penalties in England's shootout loss to Italy in the European Championship final.
The Metropolitan Police on Monday condemned the "unacceptable" abuse of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, and said it would be investigating the "offensive and racist" social media posts published soon after Italy won Sunday's shootout 3-2 following a 1-1 draw.
A mural of Rashford on the wall of a cafe in Manchester was also defaced with graffiti in the wake of the match.
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The racist abuse, which England coach Gareth Southgate condemned as "unforgivable", has led to calls for social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, to do more in hunting down the perpetrators of the abuse.
All three players targeted are part of a young England squad that has been widely praised for its diversity and social conscience.
Rashford, for one, has been at the forefront of a campaign against child poverty, which convinced the British government to restore free lunches for thousands of poor children amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have been a beacon of light in bringing people together, in people being able to relate to the national team, and the national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue," Southgate said on Monday.
The abuse was widely condemned, with Prince William, the president of the English Football Association, saying he was "sickened" by the racism aimed at the England players.
https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1414514323142107136"It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour," he wrote on Twitter.
"It must stop now and all those involved should be held accountable."
Although British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves," he has faced criticism for emboldening those booing the England team for taking a knee before their matches to protest against racial injustice.
He later said: "I say shame on you and I hope you all crawl back under the rock from which you emerged."
Last month, Mr Johnson's spokesman said the Prime Minister was "more focused on action rather than gestures."
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1414465103374729220?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThat comment led to widespread criticism that Mr Johnson was effectively encouraging those booing to carry on.
Three days later, his spokesman changed tack, saying the prime minister "respects the right of all people to peacefully protest and make their feelings known about injustices" and that he wanted to cheer the team on and "not boo."
Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, accused Mr Johnson of a failure of leadership for not calling out the booing of the England team.
"The Prime Minister failed to call that out and the actions and in-actions of leaders have consequences, so I'm afraid the prime minister's words today ring hollow," he said.
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Gary Neville, a former Manchester United player and now a TV commentator, said he wasn't surprised that the three players who failed to convert their penalties were targeted for racist abuse and also called out Mr Johnson.
"The Prime Minister said it was OK for the population of this country to boo those players who are trying to promote equality and defend against racism," he said on Sky News.
"It starts at the very top and so for me I wasn't surprised in the slightest that I woke up this morning to those headlines."
In recent years, football authorities in England have joined with the players in trying to tackle racism both within the sport — at every level — and in society as a whole.
The English FA said it would give the players affected what support it could and press on authorities for the "toughest punishments possible" for anyone found to have been responsible for the abuse.
"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," it said.
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Social media companies, it said, needed to "step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms" to ensure that their platforms were "free from this type of abhorrent abuse".
Facebook, which owns Instagram, said on Monday it tries to remove harmful content as quickly as possible and encouraged people to use the tools it offers to block abuse.
"We quickly removed comments and accounts directing abuse at England's footballers last night and we'll continue to take action against those that break our rules," it said in a statement.
Twitter said the "abhorrent racist abuse" has no place on its platform, adding it removed more than 1000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating its rules.
"We will continue to take action," Twitter said, "when we identify any tweets or accounts that violate our policies."
-reported with Associated Press
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