English football fans turned violent after the national team lost 3-2 on penalties against Italy in the title clash at the Wembley Stadium.
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Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen heavily criticized the behaviour of a few England fans after their heartbreaking loss to Italy in the final of Euro 2020. Violence reportedly broke out in a lot of parts of the country on Sunday and the ones most affected were the Italians or those of Italian descent. Three England players, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka were subjected to horrible racial abuse online, even after they led their country to the final of an international competition for the first time since 1966. Sancho, Rashford and Saka had missed their penalty kicks in the shootout of the Euro 2020 final. Pietersen questioned England’s worthiness to host the 2030 football world cup after these incidents, and was left shocked that instances of such nature could still happen in 2021.
“The walk I took with Dylan to get our car home last night was scary absolutely HORRENDOUS! This behaviour in 2021?? The abuse of the players who gave us so much joy?? Do we actually deserve the 2030 World Cup?” Pietersen tweeted after the match ended.
England had a chance to win their first piece of silverware in over half a century when they took on Italy in the final of Euro 2020. It was, in fact, the perfect setting for them to achieve so. The match was in England’s backyard, at Wembley stadium. Of the 60,000 that were allowed in the stadium, only 1,000 tickets were for Italian supporters. Over the course of the tournament, English fans did not cut a good picture.
The fans in attendance were disrespectful to every single national anthem that was played in Wembley Stadium except their own. They refused to show respect to the German, Danish and Italian national anthems, as a roar of boos went up every time they were played. After the conclusion of the final, there were reports that Italians were violently assaulted by inebriated England supporters who just could not stomach a loss. UEFA had already issued a warning and a fine to the English FA over their behaviour during the Denmark game, when they disrespected the Danish anthem and aimed lasers at goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to put him off.
The same fans once again reared their ugly heads during the final against Italy and tried to put them off to the best of their abilities, but in vain. What resulted was an overwhelming sense of frustration and disappointment for the England faithful as they resorted to the lowest means possible and used violence against Italian supporters.
They were further extremely disrespectful to their own players as mentioned earlier. The worst part is that everyone saw it coming. The English culture of hooliganism might be one born out of passion, but it is also one that is extremely racist, perilously violent, and highly toxic.
England manager Gareth Southgate heavily criticized the actions of such fans and he was not the only one. Former England defender Rio Ferdinand went on a tirade on Twitter on Sunday, slamming the fans who racially abused their own players. Gary Neville was also one of those people who condemned these cowardly acts and called for the fans to improve themselves as such behaviour is quite simply, unacceptable.
