Fall-out from Euro 2020 final continues
The FA has undertaken an official review of the Euro 2020 final, where thousands of ticketless fans gained access to Wembley leading to fighting breaking out inside the stadium.
Mark Bullingham, head of the association, has described the final as a “six-hour siege” by “lawless yobs”. In a statement, he added: “We are determined to fully understand what happened outside and then inside Wembley Stadium. A key emphasis of the findings will be to ensure that lessons are learned and such disgraceful scenes are never able to be repeated.”
UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings into the FA, hitting them with four separate charges with regards to fan behaviour, which also includes the semi-final win over Denmark. In spite of the trouble, Wembley will still host the Champions League final in 2024.
Meanwhile, five arrests have been made in relation to the racist abuse of Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho on social media. The three players – who all failed to score in the decisive penalty shootout – have been widely praised for their dignified responses to the abuse, with each releasing eloquent statements.
“I’m not going pretend that I didn’t see the racial abuse that me and my brothers Marcus and Bukayo received after the game, but sadly it’s nothing new,” said Sancho. “As a society we need to do better, and hold these people accountable. Hate will never win.”
“My penalty was not good enough, it should have gone in but I will never apologise for who I am and where I came from,” added Rashford, whose mural in Manchester was defaced and then quickly restored in the aftermath of the final.
Saka also took a swipe at Instagram, Twitter and Facebook in his own statement, saying: “To the social media platforms, I don’t want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that me, Marcus and Jadon have received this week. I knew instantly the kind of hate that I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages.”