England’s footballers behaved with dignity and discipline on a shameful night of racial abuse in Bulgaria. European football’s governing body must now impose sanctions that bite
Long before the footballers of Bulgaria and England walked on to the pitch of Sofia’s Stadion Vasil Levski on Monday evening, their Euro 2020 qualifying match had become a test of something far more important than sporting prowess. Parts of the stadium had been closed off after previous incidents of racist abuse at international games. Yet warnings by the Chelsea forward, Tammy Abraham, that England would consider leaving the pitch if there was a repeat, drew the ire of the president of Bulgaria’s football federation, Borislav Mihaylov. Bulgaria, he said, had less of a problem with racism than England, and Abraham’s remarks had been “derogatory” and “offensive”.
In fact they turned out to be prescient. Before and during the match, black English players were booed and subjected to monkey chants by sections of the crowd. Far-right ultras repeatedly made Nazi salutes. The defender Tyrone Mings, making his international debut, was a particular target, after pausing to stare in the direction of some of the most virulent abuse. The shameful, hateful spectacle has inevitably raised questions of whether the match should have been abandoned. It was paused twice during the first half, after England reported the abuse to the referee, Ivan Bebek, following to the letter a new Uefa protocol. The protocol provides for a game to be called off as a final step. In the event, after discussing the situation at half-time, England opted to play out the second-half, leaving open the option of walking off the field at any point.
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