July 12, (THEWILL) – In a night of an enthralling football of the Euro finals, where the highs and lows, the ecstasy and pain, the passions and emotions of football were evident, so was the worst of English football fanaticism, violence and deeply entrenched racism. And it became for England a moment of introspection for how it wants to be seen as a footballing nation.
After an engaging 90 minutes of football, injury time and penalty kicks because the scores were locked at 1-1, Italy emerged as European football champions after a dramatic penalty shootout at the historic Wembley stadium. The goalkeepers were heroes during the game and continued that heroism during the penalties.
England’s Jordan Pickford stopped kicks from Andrea Belotti, who fired second and the highly impressive Jorginho, who took Italy’s fifth. Italian goalie, Gianluigi Donnarumma was also impressive as he kept out the fourth and final kicks of England’s substitutes Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka to send the Italians wild with victory celebrations.
Yet, for some of the English fans, before, during and after, it was a trail of vandalism, violence and destruction with pictures and video evidence that soured the beauty of the football on display. In the immediate aftermath of the loss, several reports detailed the violence that gripped several London streets.
Bringing out the beast in them, England fans reportedly attacked fans of Italy who identified with the team, and generally people of colour, who had suddenly become targets of attacks for no other reason than that, in the warped and twisted minds of this section of English fans, it was Persons of Colour in the English team that lost their penalties and cost them the victory.
In some disturbing videos that were shared online, England fans attacked some fans, who were unable to protect themselves in the melee, at a section of the stadium physically, verbally, and racially, before the stewards could react and cart away their victims. The toxic behaviour spiralled from there to acts of hooliganism and to racist abuses online.
In the videos circulating online, some of which will need to be independently verified for certainty, England fans beat up Asians and Africans, whose only crime was their race, while engaging in acts of vandalism. Someone was also seen being thrown into the river Thames in London.
It all began before the finals even kicked off when images emerged of England supporters burning an Italian flag in central London ahead of the final. With no control of the situation, things began to escalate as these wayward fans were seen trampling on barricades outside the Wembley Stadium venue of the final.
It quickly got ugly and the shambolic organisation of the event was immediately obvious. There was no police presence to immediately arrest the situation as it broke down and some fans without tickets were able to break through and gain entry into the stadium grounds, leading to more fights and disturbances.
Eyewitness accounts claim bottles were used freely, vandalism was high with the sounds of broken windows joining the noise of the melee, without any concern for the still existent coronavirus infection regulations. Road cones were not spared and anything that was not tied down or held in place was left as part of the debris.
When the police finally got a handle of the mess, there were quick arrests especially of some of the hundreds of fans that were seen storming the venue ahead of the kickoff, most of whom did not have tickets for the game but overpowered the staff and broke through the barriers. The Metropolitan Police said 49 people had been arrested for a “variety of offences” so far.
In the melee, 19 officers, who engaged to control the situation of the “wholly unacceptable” behaviour of English fans, were injured as they “confronted volatile crowds”, according to the Met Police, who refrained from going into details of the extent of the injuries.
Coinciding with the Wembley violence, the racist attacks against England’s own players who missed penalty kicks against Italy picked up the pace online as well. They were targeted through their social media accounts, called all sorts of unprintable names and, as “slaves”, were asked to go back to Africa.
The UK government was quick to condemn the acts of English fans and to outrightly call out the racist and vile comments that have been targeted at the English players directly. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, through his official Twitter account (@BorisJohnson) was succinct:
“This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media.
“Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”
The Health Minister, Edward Argar, echoed that position when he emphasised there is “no place for that in sport, no place for that in our country”.
“Those who’ve done this cannot claim to be true fans of the sport.”
Argar finished by saying that some action will be taken to find the people who breached security at Wembley and caused damage in central London, just as the Met Police had already started doing.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, tweeted out her response via her official handle (@pritipatel) where she said: “I am disgusted that @England players who have given so much for our country this summer have been subject to vile racist abuse on social media.
“It has no place in our country and I back the police to hold those responsible accountable.”
The English Football Association issued a statement condemning the language used against the players on Monday morning. The statement read, in part: “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.
“We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour 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.”
Further condemnation came from the England team in a statement they also released on Twitter in reaction to the social media abuse. It read: “We’re disgusted that some of our squad –who have given everything for the shirt this summer– have been subjected to discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game.”
The question that this immediately evokes is will the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and by extension FIFA, consider London a contender as host of football events especially as it already has a bid to host the 2030 World Cup in London, after this example of the kind of hosts they can be?
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
