[imagesource: Getty Images]

On Sunday night, as England’s Bukayo Saka watched Gianluigi Donnarumma save his penalty, you knew it was coming.

England’s three unsuccessful penalty takers – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Saka – are black, and within seconds their various social media accounts were met with a deluge of racist abuse.

It was so utterly predictable, and in his first public statement since Sunday, Saka said that he “knew instantly the kind of hate” he was going to receive.

Both Rashford and Sancho released social media statements earlier this week, talking about the abuse that came their way, whilst thanking others for their messages of support.

It may be a minority of English fans behaving badly, but they do know how to make a lot of noise.

Here’s Saka’s statement via Twitter:

pic.twitter.com/KAibQRYH2T

— Bukayo Saka (@BukayoSaka87) July 15, 2021

On Instagram, his statement has received in excess of two million likes, and more than 100 000 comments, which have been overwhelmingly positive.

In full, the statement reads:

I have stayed away from social media for a few days to spend time with my family and reflect on the last few weeks. This message won’t do it justice how grateful I am for all the love that I have received, and I feel that I need to thank everyone who has supported me.

It was an honour to be part of an @England squad that leads by example, they are brothers for life and I’m grateful for everything that I have learnt from every one of the players and staff who worked so hard. To help that team reach our first final in 55 years, seeing my family in the crowd, knowing what they’ve given up to help me get there, that meant everything to me.

There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was with the result and my penalty. I really believed we would win this for you. I’m sorry that we couldn’t bring it home for you this year, but I promise you that we will give everything we’ve got to make sure this generation knows how it feels to win.

My reaction post match said it all, I was hurting so much and I felt like I’d let you all and my England family down, but I can promise you this.. I will not let that moment or the negativity that I’ve received this week break me.

For those who have campaigned on my behalf and sent me heartfelt letters, wished me and my family well – I’m so thankful. This is what football should be about. Passion, people of all races, genders, religions and backgrounds coming together with one shared joy of the rollercoaster of football.

To the social media platforms @instagram @twitter @facebook I don’t want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that me Marcus and Jadon have received this week. I knew instantly the kind of hate that I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages.

There is no place for racism or hate of any kind in football or in any area of society and to the majority of people coming together to call out the people sending these messages, by taking action and reporting these comments to the police and by driving out the hate by being kind to one another, we will win.

Love always wins.

In all of this, it’s easy to forget sometimes that Saka is just 19, and stepping up to take that fifth penalty took incredible courage.

The merits of whether manager Gareth Southgate should have chosen him over somebody like Jack Grealish will be debated for many years to come, but Saka was said to have been on the money with his penalty-taking during training.

As of last night, UK police have arrested five suspects in connection with social media abuse aimed at the three players

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs’ Council football policing lead, told The Telegraph that more swoops are likely in the coming days, as social media firms hand over background details of accounts involved.

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have all faced criticism for not acting swiftly enough to remove hateful posts. Instagram has admitted the app had “mistakenly” failed to flag some racist comments but said the issue had been addressed, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would not hesitate to legislate further in order to crackdown on online hate.

That’s the same Boris Johnson who said before the tournament that he “fully respects the rights” of English fans to boo their own players while they took a knee to protest against racism.

Perhaps the divide between the English players and the politicians hopping on the bandwagon is best summed up by Tyrone Mings:

You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens. https://t.co/fdTKHsxTB2

— Tyrone Mings (@OfficialTM_3) July 12, 2021

Truth.

[source:telegraph]