‘OUR FANS EMBARRASSED ME’

The FA is fined £50,000 by UEFA for racist chanting by England fans in Stockholm aimed at Sweden’s Henrik Larsson during a 2-1 defeat in a Euro 2000 qualifier.

Ashley Cole and Shaun Wrightphillips are the focus of monkey chants as England lose 1-0 to Spain in a friendly at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium. The Spanish FA is later fined £44,750 by FIFA.

Ashley Young, Ashley Cole and Theo Walcott suffer racist chants during a 3-0

Euro 2012 qualifier win in Sofia. The

Bulgarian FA is fined £34,230.

England

Under-21 fullback Danny Rose (above) is subjected to racist chanting in Serbia, and is then sent off for kicking the ball into the crowd in response. The Serbian FA is fined £65,000.

Danny Rose, Raheem Sterling (below) and Callum Hudson-odoi are subjected to monkey chants from Montenegro fans during England’s 5-1 Euro 2020 qualifier win. UEFA order Montenegro to play a European Championship qualifier behind closed doors.

Raheem Sterling is racially abused by a Bulgarian fan at Wembley during a Euro qualifier. A fan is arrested after a steward said he heard it but is later released without charge. THE Bulgarian captain who confronted his own fans has admitted: “I feel embarrassed.”

Midfielder Ivelin Popov was praised for his “courage” by England forward Marcus Rashford, as he went to the home supporters at half-time to plead with them to stop the racist chanting (right).

The 31-year-old skipper spoke outside the stadium after the game and was clearly shell-shocked by what had happened.

He warned it would bring shame on his country while insisting

Bulgarian people love English football. “Of course I feel embarrassed,” said Popov, who has won 88 caps for his country.

“We are 11 versus 11, it doesn’t matter your colour, it’s no problem. We are all the same, we are one very big family in football and only we, if we are together, can stop these bad things.

“I don’t want it to be like this, it’s not good for us, the federation and our country. “In this country, many fans support English football – there are fan clubs for Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester, so I don’t know why this happened.”

Henderson was proud of the way England handled the racist abuse in Sofia OCT 5, 1998 NOV 17, 2004 SEP 2, 2011 OCT 17, 2012 MAR 25, 2019 SEP 7, 2019 ENGLAND boss Gareth Southgate has paid a glowing tribute to Tyrone Mings for the “outstanding” way he handled himself on a shameful night. The Aston Villa defender (above, with his manager) stood tall and defied the racists in Bulgaria, insisting England play on rather than walk off as they were subjected to shocking terrace abuse. Southgate praised him for showing maturity beyond his years on his full international debut. And he believes Mings, 26, has attributes which are born out of growing up in a homeless shelter and coming through difficult life challenges to succeed. Southgate said: “Since I have been watching him he’s displayed outstanding leadership qualities. And I saw that again in Sofia. “His life experience and his journey to becoming an England player is very different to most of the boys who have just been in an academy system. “That worldly wiseness, if you like, showed. I said to him, the level of opponent often isn’t the issue with playing for England. It’s being able to handle wearing an England shirt. “I didn’t think he would have to go through everything that he did, but he’s a very impressive young man and, even after the game, he’s spoken brilliantly as well. “So, I couldn’t be happier with him or for him. “I am incredibly proud of the way my players and staff dealt with everything. Their response, their focus, the way that they played after the stoppages in the game was remarkable. “Bizarrely, I think they’ve actually gained strength from the experience. “They shouldn’t have had to go through that. It’s unacceptable, of course. But in terms of the way they dealt with it, I don’t think they could have done it in a more impressive manner.” Southgate has made a tradition of presenting debutants with a shirt to mark the occasion and a dignitary or a former player normally does the honours. But Southgate joked: “Well, unfortunately, he ended up with me. Trent Alexander-arnold got HRH, Tyrone got me. That was the way it was.”