England players were bombarded with 12,500 hate messages on social media during Euro 2020, despite this being the country’s most successful tournament for 55 years, Sportsmail can reveal.
The vile abuse was aimed directly at players, through Twitter and Instagram, and contains comments about race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, as well as extreme personal abuse and threats of harm, including to family members.
The analysis from Crisp, a company that works with top flight football clubs across Europe and the Premier League, included the whole England squad and indicates the extent of the problem of online abuse now facing players.
Nineteen-year-old Bukayo Saka was inconsolable after failing to score his penalty kick and handing victory to the Italians, and was immediately racially abused on social media
The level of abuse is especially shocking since the Three Lions passed through the group stages untroubled, thrashed Ukraine 4-0 in Rome and only conceded their first goal in a 2-1 semi-final win over Denmark, before succumbing to a very strong Italy side in the final, on penalties.
The treatment of England players has come into sharp focus after Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were targeted by racists following their penalty misses for England against Italy in the Euro 2020 showpiece.
England were defeated 3-2 in the shootout in their first major tournament final in 55 years, following a 1-1 draw at Wembley on Sunday.
Despite their best efforts and obvious disappointment, the trio were almost immediately targeted and on Instagram and Twitter.
Marcus Rashford, left, and Jadon Sancho have their heads in their hands after missing their kicks
Racists have bombarded Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jodan Sancho with abhorrent abuse after the trio missed their penalties during the Euro 2020 final
Racists took to Twitter with vile slurs after the Euro 2020 match
There has been widespread condemnation, including from players and team mates, the Duke of Cambridge, who is the honorary president of the FA, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The PM told social media companies they must ‘up their game' over the racist abuse of England's penalty takers. He said there is an ‘urgent need for action' after the disgraceful trolling.
Today, the number of people who have signed an online petition calling for people guilty of racist abuses to be banned from football grounds passed one million.
While England’s penalty takers have been subject to appalling treatment in recent days, it is now clear that a torrent of abuse has been directed at the squad during the four weeks of the tournament.
Saka was consoled by Gareth Southgate as penalties came back to haunt the manager who missed his spot kick as a player at the semi-finals of Euro 1996
User wrote, 'Foreigners are stupid,' seemingly choosing to ignore that Saka was born in Ealing
Crisp, which previously presented research on online abuse to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, undertook the analysis on behalf of Sportsmail, and found the hate was posted by 10,000 abusive accounts.
