It’s not coming home

Football is widely considered the world’s greatest sport and known as ‘the beautiful game’. It is not difficult to understand why football is captivating as it evokes communal unity and a sense of togetherness, particularly during international competitions. Passion and unpredictability make football enthralling and exhilarating, but that is also its downside.

The England national football team have played in two major international competitions in recent years: the UEFA European Championship 2020 and the FIFA World Cup 2022. The time these matches took place is indescribable; such fun and bliss infiltrated Britain during the tribulations of COVID, inflation and union strikes, so what went wrong? Well, we lost.

England played the entire competition incredibly and deservedly made it to the Euro 2020 final on July 11th, 2021. The match against Italy resulted in a draw (1 – 1); thus, it went to penalties to determine the winner.

England’s coach Gareth Southgate called upon three young, talented players, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho to take on the responsibility for the penalties, and unfortunately, to the team and fans’ dismay, Italy won 3-2 on penalties. Losing was profoundly disheartening to all those following the competition. It was clear how dedicated and driven the national team was since this was England’s first finals appearance in any major tournament since 1966. As a consequence of this loss, the fans’ frustration fell onto the shoulders of the three black penalty takers. These men are more than football players; they are inspirational individuals. Jadon Sancho, 22, aided Nike’s project to build a football pitch in South-East London providing less fortunate children with the opportunity to play their beloved sport.

Bukayo Saka, 21, teamed up with the charity BigShoe in 2022 to help 120 children worldwide receive life-changing medical surgeries. Marcus Rashford, 25, during the COVID pandemic, campaigned for the prevention of child food poverty in the UK, resulting in two government U-turns concerning free school meals to vulnerable children during the school holidays.

Some fans had forgotten everything these three men had achieved outside the pitch, alongside their worthy goals and assists during the tournament. They reduced these players to the only distinctive characteristic that separated them from their teammates – race. The nation shared emotions of misery and disappointment. However, specific individuals channelled these emotions into anger and subjected Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford to an abundance of vile online racial abuse. The Football Association, Boris Johnson and Prince William condemned the racist abuse, which was so intense and overwhelming that the Metropolitan Police started investigating the abuse perpetuated towards the players on Twitter. The abuse became physical, with Marcus Rashford’s mural – created to celebrate the inspirational work Rashford executed during the pandemic against food poverty – being defaced; the graffiti consisted of racial slurs and profanity covering the artwork.

Racist abuse towards players comes from the minority of football watchers who scream the loudest and project their disappointment towards the players who carried them this far in the first place due to their ability. Support for the players somewhat silenced the hate, with members of Withington, Manchester gathering to write positive messages around and over the vandalising of Rashford’s mural and high-profile individuals speaking out offering kind words for the three men. The fans’ response after the match exposed this terrible problem within ‘football culture’ and questioned how and why racism is allowed to fester in the football community. Although, as Sancho wrote in a post a few days after the Euro final, “Hate will never win,” he was undoubtedly correct.

History, unfortunately, repeated itself. Despite not missing any penalties, England’s loss in the Qatar World Cup became a problem for Saka and Rashford; again, the racist comments and messages returned. The problem of racism in football is not just bound to England. After France’s loss to Argentina in the FIFA World Cup Final 2022, the three black penalty takers Kingsley Coman, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Randal Kolo Muani experienced the same racist messages, with Kylian Mbappé also receiving discriminatory messages. Further demonstrating that no matter how well a black footballer plays, if some fans are not satisfied, racism will ensue.

It is not easy to articulate the emotions that arise whilst seeing your race publicly and violently vilified on social media. Racism in football impacts not only the players but viewers from ethnic minority backgrounds; a 2021 YouGov poll revealed that 74% of ethnically diverse fans planning to visit a stadium are concerned about racist abuse. Rather than enjoying the match, these individuals look for the closest exits in case their team loses; this is not how football should be.

Winning is the universal goal for all those playing in and watching an England game. Naturally, anger or sadness arises when this goal is no longer achievable. However, it is not natural nor understandable to focus these intense emotions on the players, especially those deemed responsible for the loss. We cannot sing the lyrics ‘It’s coming home’ any time soon if black football players are made to feel excluded from the country they call home.