July 16 – Five people have been arrested in the wake of the racist abuse meted out to the three black players who missed penalties in England’s shootout defeat to Italy in the final of Euro 2020.
Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were all targeted and The UK Football Policing Unit said its team was working through “a significant number of reports of racist abuse”.
Chief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs’ Council football policing lead, said the racial abuse “has quite rightly shocked and appalled people across the country”.
“I’m disgusted there are individuals out there who think it’s acceptable to direct such abhorrent abuse at them, or at anybody else.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to ban any perpetrators of online abuse from stadiums for up to 10 years.
This follows an online petition, calling for the FA and the government to ban the culprits for life, receiving more than one million signatures.
New laws would “force social media companies to take responsibility and action where this vile behaviour exists” or face fines, Johnson said.
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