Police arrest 11 for targeting English players with online racial abuse after Euro 2020 loss
Nearly a dozen people were arrested after multiple England soccer players were subject to racist abuse on social media following their loss to Italy in the European Championship final last month, according to The Associated Press.
British police said they arrested 11 people on multiple offenses, per the report, including malicious communications that includes sending a form of communication with the intent to cause distress or anxiety.
The U.K. Football Policing Unit identified 207 criminal social media posts, and 123 of those accounts belonged to people who lived outside of the United Kingdom. It is still waiting for information on 50 accounts.
It’s unclear who was arrested, but the police say they range from 18 to 63 years old.
Players subject to racist abuse after Euro loss
Italy beat England on penalty kicks to win the Euro 2020 final last month.
Three Black English players — Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka — all missed penalty kicks in the match, and were almost immediately subjected to horrific racist abuse on social media. The trio received messages that included monkey emojis, racial slurs and calls to “get out my country.”
English soccer’s governing body, the FA, instantly condemned the abuse and called out social media companies to do more to prevent it.
"The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media," the statement said. "We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behavior is not welcome in following the team.
"We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible."
English players took a pregame knee throughout the tournament to protest racism and discrimination. Both the FA and the Premier League joined a four-day social media boycott in April to raise awareness of online racism targeting athletes, too.
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