DISGRACEFUL.. GRACEFUL
Mings shows his class to beat racist scum
ENGLAND debuts don’t come more challenging, disgraceful or depressing than this.
Pulling on the famous shirt for the first time in Bulgaria, as a black man, knowing the racism spilling down from the stands could force the unprecedented step of seeing the game halted – or even abandoned.
Just for good measure, England needed to win to bounce back from a shock defeat to Czech Republic 72 hours earlier.
Thankfully for Tyrone Mings, his opponents in Sofia last night were almost as bad as the cretinous behaviour of supporters – and I include England’s in this.
Winning a first England cap should be a moment to cherish. It is the pinnacle of a player’s career
from JEREMY CROSS in Sofia
and even, in some cases, his life. But in years to come when Mings has retired and decides to Google the first game he played for his country, in a moment of nostalgia, all he will find will be references he doesn’t want to read or recall.
Like how a game of football will be forever remembered for all the wrong reasons.
How Mings and his team-mates were forced to report incidents of racist abuse to referee Ivan Bebek.
The time had come for Gareth Southgate and his players to abide by the UEFA protocols in place. Do things by the book – and England did it to the letter.
Bebek stopped the game. An announcement was made over the tannoy appealing for fans to stop.
Then it happened again and both managers and captains were called to an impromptu meeting on the touchline with leading UEFA delegate Danilo Filacchione and FA chairman Greg Clarke.
It seemed like the second step was about to be taken and the players would be taken off the pitch, but both sides agreed to continue the match.
While the discussions took place, dozens of Bulgarian Ultras dressed in black walked out of the stadium at the opposite end to where travelling England fans, becoming more sanctimonious by the minute despite having ruined the home national anthem by punctuating it with chants of “no surrender”, stood in a drunken haze.
Southgate continued the dialogue with match officials in
the tunnel at half-time while Tony Conniford, head of FA security, patrolled the running track in front of the area where most of the racist abuse seemed to come from.
Things had become so toxic inside the Vasil Levski Stadium that Nazi salutes could be seen and Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov went to the front of the stand to appeal to his own supporters at the break.
Prior to kick-off, England fans had been involved in running battles with riot police in the Bulgarian capital, before going to the game to accuse their counterparts of being racist b*st*rds.
The irony was completely lost on them.
Mings was the first victim of the monkey chanting in just the 22nd minute.
He threw his arms up in protest. Welcome to international football
Tyrone.
Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford were also targeted.
We knew it was coming, not least because in the build-up the England squad had discussed the possibility of walking off themselves.
But no amount of anticipation and expectation can dilute just how shocking racism is when it actually happens – and the fact that the game finished was considered an achievement is perhaps the most damning and depressing thing of all.
Amid all the carnage Mings was a magnificent paragon of virtue. An absolute credit to his country. It’s just a shame he will never be able to remember the biggest night of his life with any fondness at all as his sport continues to battle against the cancer that is ruining it.