WHO DO YOU
DANNY ROSE yesterday revealed the full extent of the racist abuse England’s black players were subjected to on a night of shame in Serbia.
The England under 21 defender was inconsolable following Tuesday’s Euro 2013 play-off after being exposed to a torrent of racism — as well as being pelted with missiles — by Serbian thugs for 90 minutes.
After arriving home with the rest of the squad, Rose described the barbaric nature of events that unfolded in Krusevac. His account was backed up by other England players and a British photographer.
‘It started when we went out for the warm-up and over the opposite side to the bench,’ Rose told Sky
Sports News. ‘ They started monkey chanting straight away and I asked the lads if they could hear it. They said they could hear it.
‘Halfway through the warm-up I went to our assistant head coach Steve Wigley and told him what was happening. He just said I should try my best to get through it and they would deal with it straight after the game.
‘In the first half, when I went to get the ball for a throw in, the fans were starting again with the monkey chant but the first half was nowhere near as bad as the second half. I had two stones hit me in the head when I went to get the ball for a throw in.
‘Every time I touched the ball, they were doing the monkey chanting again. I think they have to be banned. I think it is right. I don’t understand how else they can learn from it. They have to be banned.’
The Serbian federation’s attempts to turn Rose from victim to instigator cut no ice.
Sportsmail witnessed at first hand the appalling behaviour of the Serbian supporters and this account from Paul Childs, a photographer for Action Images, is even more revealing.
Childs was working behind the goal to the left of the England bench and he explained to Sportsmail the extent of the racism that England’s black players were subjected to.
‘It was appalling,’ he said. ‘Marvin Sordell received lots of abuse from the moment he missed a chance early in the first half. But so did Wilfried Zaha and Thomas Ince whenever they came down by the goal.
‘It wasn’t one or two fans, either. It was hundreds. There were a lot of kids there, around 14 or 15 years of age, and they were just getting involved with the chanting, making monkey gestures and chants.
‘I had coins thrown at me throughout the game but when England scored, it escalated. A man from the Serbian FA tried to calm things down in the first half when they were throwing firecrackers but he was given a load of abuse and had
DANNY ROSE They started monkey chanting... I was hit on the head by two stones... I was so angry
SERBIAN FA Rose behaved in an inappropriate, unsportsmanlike and vulgar manner towards the supporters
to walk off. There was nothing he could do about it.’
quite why the game was staged in Krusevac, a provincial town 120 miles from the capital Belgrade, is becoming all the more unfathomable.
uEFA stipulate that under 21 games must be played within a 100-mile radius of a major airport — England flew into Nis, which was a 75-minute drive from the stadium — but that ruling is seriously flawed.
England’s senior players would not have been subjected to such conditions, so why were boys just out of school — substitute Raheem Sterling is only 17 — exposed to Neanderthal behaviour and expected to get on with it?
Not surprisingly, there was no comment from uEFA yesterday.
Originally the game was supposed to be played in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second city, but it was switched to an area that, according to those who have worked there, has an intense resentment towards Britain after it was bombed by British and united States forces during the Kosovo conflict.
Certainly the atmosphere in the g ground had an ed edge and frustrations ti boiled over after Connor W Wickham’s goal se secured a 2- 0 ag aggregate win to such an extent that had some of Se Serbia’s coaching sta staff behaved in such a manner in pu public, they would ha have been arr arrested. It left a mark. To see England’s players waiting for their coach afterwards, not one smiling or joking as you would expect after qualifying for a major tournament, confirmed how much they had been shocked.
Goalkeeper Jack Butland had, among other things, a seat and a brick thrown at him. Despite showing the objects to Turkish match official Huseyin Gocek nothing was done and it was to Butland’s immense credit that he kept his wits as well as a clean sheet.
‘You get coins thrown at you sometimes in games but there was a lot more than that,’ said Butland. ‘If you react to it and get involved you give the fans more reason to throw more stuff.
‘So I tried not to make a big deal of it and clear it. I probably won’t experience that type of atmosphere for a while.
‘The lads were very good with dealing with the abuse. Some of them heard chants as early as the warm-up and it must have been very difficult for them to deal with it. When you hear it yourself — being aimed at your team-mates — it’s difficult for everyone.’
It will become a little less difficult if uEFA do what is right. As Rose says, there can be only one course of action for Serbia. Ban them. d.king@dailymail.co.uk