Jordan Henderson says England wanted to make racist fans ‘suffer’
Jordan Henderson has admitted England’s players decided to play on in the face of racist abuse from Bulgarian supporters during the Euro 2020 qualifier in Sofia on Monday because they wanted their opponents and their fans to “suffer”.
With the match having already been halted twice before half-time following repeated monkey chants and Nazi salutes from more than one section of the Vasil Levski Stadium, the manager, Gareth Southgate, left it up to his team to discuss whether or not to come out for the second half in Sofia. But despite discussing before the match what action they would take should there be a repeat of the racist abuse which marred England’s qualifier in the Bulgarian capital in 2011, Henderson insisted that the entire team was in accordance about continuing because they felt to do otherwise would have sent the wrong message.
“I obviously wasn’t happy with the situation that we were in, it wasn’t nice to be involved in and it shouldn’t be happening in 2019, it is very disappointing,” said the Liverpool midfielder. “But at the same time, I felt as though as a team we dealt with it so well, we touched on it before we came here just in case it did happen and unfortunately it did. So we spoke together and the decision was that we carried on because if you leave the pitch and stop the game they win, really.”
Henderson added: “That is how we looked at it and what the message was in the dressing room at half-time. We wanted to go out in the second half and make them suffer and make their team suffer on the pitch and I think we did that.”
England’s 6-0 victory was Bulgaria’s biggest-ever home defeat, with Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling both scoring twice either side of goals from Marcus Rashford and the captain, Harry Kane. Henderson paid tribute to the professionalism shown by Southgate’s side in managing to rise above the racist abuse and singled out Tyrone Mings for the way the Aston Villa defender handled the situation on his first appearance for his country at any level.
“It shouldn’t be happening and will obviously tarnish that,” he said. “But at the same time I thought he dealt with the situation so, so well. It was a top performance for his debut, I thought he was magnificent. That just shows the character in him and in the team and it will just make us stronger, no doubt. We stayed together like we should have and we spoke about it before, handled it well and if one player didn’t want to carry on we would have stopped playing, simple as that, no problem. But everyone wanted to carry on and we wanted to let football do the talking.”
Henderson also praised the reaction of England’s supporters after they were among the first to hear the abuse, responding with a chant featuring the words: “You racist bastards, you know what you are” as early as the 20th minute. “I thought our fans were brilliant. All night I thought they were outstanding,” he said. “They stood behind us like they always do. They are unbelievable all the time but it is times like that you want them right behind you and they certainly were. That just brings us together even more.”
Henderson added: “We are obviously happy with the performance but still feel like it shouldn’t be happening in this day and age. To hear the announcement about the racism and then the whole stadium whistling was a bit strange. I’m sure something will be done.”