Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

England vs Bulgaria racism: Debate over walking off is irrelevant given unprecedented choice made by players

The Euro 2020 qualifier was stopped twice after the England players were subjected to ‘abhorrent racist chanting’

Miguel Delaney
Chief Football Writer
Tuesday 15 October 2019 08:52 BST
Comments
Gareth Southgate reacts to England win over Bulgaria

There were a few different emotions in England’s Sofia dressing room, in accordance with what was a grimly chaotic night. Most depressingly, some of the backroom staff were “visibly emotionally upset” by the racist abuse the team had been subjected to by Bulgarian supporters. More encouragingly, some of the players were smiling. They felt they’d made “a major statement”, according to Gareth Southgate, both in how they played amid such difficult circumstances and how they dealt with it all.

“They actually are in the dressing room smiling, because they’ve played so well,” the England manager said following a 6-0 win over Bulgaria that will not be remembered for any of the game. “They also know they’ve made a statement and they want the focus to be on the football. We will recognise there’s been an opportunity to raise awareness of this issue. I think that has happened.”

There was much more happening around the corridors of the Vasil Levski Stadium by that point.

Security staff were taking witness statements, and starting to go through footage of the crowd, to aid a Uefa investigation that it is now hoped will finally begin to break new ground in this fight.

The wonder is whether Bulgarian manager Krassimir Balakov had by that stage seen the footage of ‘Lauda Army’ ultras in hoodies making fascist salutes and monkey noises, because he’d displayed a bizarre level of denial after the game that does feed into this problem. The same could be said of the Bulgarian journalist who shouted down Southgate and FA chairman Gregg Clarke for “overreacting”. More denial.

Something else certainly happened, however, that could well be the most important element of the night. There was the sense of empowerment of the England players.

The Uefa three-step protocol in dealing with racist abuse allowed them to make an unprecedented stand in such situations by having the game stopped twice. They could have walked off – but chose not to. This was similarly unprecedented.

As Southgate acknowledged, there will be all manner of debate about whether this went far enough, and whether they should have walked off.

That is however almost irrelevant next to the fact this was the players’ will, that they got to enact. That is something that hasn’t been allowed before. That does not necessarily vindicate Uefa’s approach or history of this, of course, but it meant control of this situation was with the team.

And, ultimately, nobody can tell people what their own individual appropriate reaction to racist abuse should be. The pride in their response should have told enough, as Tyrone Mings illustrated.

“We made a decision at half time to come out and play the game which we thought was the right decision and if anything else had happened we would have taken appropriate action,” the defender said. “He became a symbol for England’s bravery on the night, all the more so because he was making his debut.

Gareth Southgate consoles Marcus Rashford

At half-time, having already made the decision to stay on at the second stoppage four minutes before the break, the players rallied together.

“No, we want to play,” they told Southgate and the FA officials. “We want to finish. We want to win the game. We don’t want the racists to win.”

After that, the FA officials came down from their seats to the tunnel, to show solidarity with the players and staff.

They were also consulting with Uefa, and the big question now will be as regards what they do next.

Kick It Out have already called for a sanction as strong as expulsion.

“It’s now time for Uefa to step up and show some leadership,” a statement read. “For far too long, they have consistently failed to take effective action. The fact Bulgaria are already hosting this game with a partial stadium closure for racist abuse shows that Uefa’s sanctions are not fit for purpose.

“There can be no more pitiful fines or short stadium bans. If Uefa care at all about tackling discrimination – and if the Equal Game campaign means anything – then points deductions and tournament expulsion must follow.”

FA chairman Gregg Clarke wouldn’t add to such commentary, saying his body now had to be mindful of respecting the process and not prejudicing it. There do remain unanswered questions.

How was it that the ‘Lauda Army’ ultras – who became immediately identifiable to anyone who didn’t have previous knowledge of them – were allowed in in the first place? Did the Bulgarian authorities care enough?

At the same time, there has been some questionable commentary about the country’s society as a whole over this, apparently overlooking how often we insist a conspicuous minority of supporters should not colour the perception of the rest on our side.

The game was twice halted after racist chanting in Sofia

Clarke and Southgate both made astute statements in this regard.

“Bulgaria’s full of decent people and decent football fans and a few people have embarrassed their country,” Clarke stated. “And I would not try to take the moral high ground because we are still fighting racism in our country. But I do think Uefa have to take time to collect all the facts and then decide how to act appropriately.”

Southgate had been asked whether his players would be psychologically scarred by the events, only to offer a dose of reality.

“Sadly, my players, because of their experiences in our own country, are hardened to racism. I don’t know what that says about our society but that’s the reality, so that actually saddens me that when I speak to them about it, they are absolutely hardened to it.”

To only deepen the point, there was an incongruity to England supporters so quickly going from “you racist bastards” to songs about “10 German bombers” and “No Surrender to the IRA”.

This is obviously not to say that these chants are the equivalent of monkey chants, but they are part of a spectrum that does feed into this problem and create the kind of animosity that fosters hostile atmospheres. That cannot be overlooked.

Neither, in all this, should the fact the England players made a choice.

That, for all the debate, is a clear positive of a bad night.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in