Racist posts in U.K. after Euros lead to 4 arrests

Four people have been arrested over online racist abuse aimed at members of the England soccer team after Sunday's European championship final, British police said Thursday.

A specialist team is looking into the offensive comments, police said, after three Black players — Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka — were targeted with racist abuse on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

All three missed penalties in the shootout loss to Italy at Wembley Stadium in London.

The abuse has been widely condemned and the government has promised action against social media companies if they do not remove offensive material more quickly.

“We are working very closely with social media platforms, who are providing data we need to progress inquiries,” said Chief Const. Mark Roberts, the officer responsible for leading Britain's policing response on soccer issues.

“If we identify that you are behind this crime, we will track you down and you will face the serious consequences.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to tackle online abuse, but he and other ministers have been accused of hypocrisy for not condemning those who booed the players at the start of the tournament.

The use of video assistant referee upsets many soccer fans worldwide, but its role at the European championship was far less controversial than during the 2020-21 English Premier League season, William Hill said in a report.

The bookmaker generated a controversy rating for each of the 18 decisions overturned by VAR during the Euros with reactionary metrics such as tweet volume, text sentiment analysis and articles generated on the incidents.

The pan-european tournament produced an average controversy rating of 4.40, making it 14.39 per cent less controversial than the Premier League.