A GAME STAINED BY RACISM
England keep their cool amid vile abuse
IT was Raheem Sterling who had summed it up best — at a press conference in Prague last Thursday.
Asked if he feared this would be a trip marred by racism from the stands, Sterling explained that some countries still have discrimination engrained in their cultures. It didn’t sound like a warning at the time but here on a dismal, sorry night in Sofia, we began to understand exactly what Sterling meant.
We arrived at this old, primitive stadium to find swastikas stuck to the back of seats. There were other slogans railing against inter-racial relationships. In the press box, meanwhile, some of the locals wanted an argument before the game had even started.
If we thought this was going to be a night purely about the football, we really had been desperately naive. No, we will remember this for what happened in the 27th and 42nd minutes of the first half.
They are the moments that will form bookmarks in the history of England’s time on the international stage, the moments when Gareth Southgate and his players decided they had heard enough. When the racist noises detected first by Tyrone Mings and then by other players in red became too clear and too offensive to ignore.
This, remember, was Mings’ debut for England. How desperately unpleasant that the Aston Villa defender’s first notable act was to inform a linesman he was being abused because he was black.
That complaint led to a stoppage a few minutes later and the first step of the UEFA protocol, an announcement over the tannoy that the game was in danger of being abandoned.
This, of course, was what some of the home fans wanted. Bulgaria were two down by the time the abuse started and that was not a coincidence. If they could not impact this game on the pitch — where their team were awful — the best thing would be to get the thing called off.
The day before the game, the Bulgarian supporters had already been set the very worst example by their own coach.
Despite the fact the Bulgarian FA had warned their English counterparts at a security meeting last month that racist incidents at the game were ‘very possible’, coach Krasimir Balakov suggested the English had the bigger problem with issues of discrimination.
With Balakov as a spokesperson, what hope did we ever have of this evening passing off without incident? Bulgaria are bottom of Group A for a reason and first-half goals by Marcus Rashford, Sterling and two from Ross Barkley were enough to push home players to the brink of implosion.
As the Bulgarian supporters did their thing in the stands, their players reacted by spoiling for fights and lashing out verbally and physically.
While Southgate spoke to the referee and UEFA delegate during the second stoppage, England captain Jordan Henderson became embroiled in an argument with Balakov and at this stage it felt very unlikely we would see this game through to the end.
That would have been a victory for the bigots. Happily, we got there somehow.
England were kickstarted by a superb Rashford goal on seven minutes. Fed the ball by Barkley, he eased down the left, cut back across his defender and fired a fierce shot high in to the net.
Bulgarian goalkeeper Plamen Iliev should have saved it. The ball was struck well but straight above where he was standing. Nevertheless it was a terrific goal from the Manchester United striker.
The second goal was also excellent. England passed the ball with purpose before Sterling was played clear down the inside-right and his low cross was turned in by Barkley at the far post.
With 20 minutes on the clock, England were already in the clear.
By the time Barkley scored his second goal — a header from close range in the 32nd minute — the football was no longer the story.
England’s players were clearly upset, as was Southgate. It was to their credit, though, that they continued to play controlled football. As well as provocation on the field, they were being goaded on it. The Bulgarian players started to kick and snarl and their captain Ivelin Popov was the worst offender, bringing Rashford to the ground with a hack that could easily have brought a red card.
Maybe driven on by an atmosphere that grew more wretched, England continued to play. And shortly after the game had been halted for a second time, Sterling scored their fourth at the far post.
We were glad of half time when it came. A number of the supporters responsible for the problems decided to leave during the interval and the second half was played in an entirely different atmosphere.
England scored twice more, Sterling running through for his second and Kane doing likewise on 85 minutes.
With Kosovo beating Montenegro, England’s qualification will have to wait until next month and that feels right. Something like that deserves to be more than a footnote on a dreadful evening when so much of what we saw and heard was not about the football.