England forward Jadon Sancho believes players will start falling out of love with football if racist abuse in stadiums and on social media continues.
Former Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku became the latest victim of sickening abuse on Sunday evening as he was subjected to monkey chants as he scored a match-winning penalty for Inter Milan at Cagliari.
Lukaku isn’t the first black player to be targeted by the Cagliari fans, with ex-Juventus striker Moise Kean – who joined Everton over the summer – suffering the same abuse in the Sardinian city last season.
Following the incident, Inter boss Antonio Conte said Italian football needs ‘more education’, while Lukaku said football is going backwards in its fight to eradicate racism.
However, these incidents are not just happening in wider Europe, it’s happening on our doorstep too.
A number of Premier League stars have suffered racial abuse online since the start of the season, with the likes of Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Tammy Abraham and Kurt Zouma, plus others throughout the pyramid, all targeted by social media trolls.
Abuse is also prevalent in international football, with a number of England players targeted during March’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Montenegro.
Sancho was an unused substitute that night and, speaking ahead of the Three Lions’ upcoming games against Bulgaria and Kosovo, he sent his support to Lukaku and said racism is ruining the beautiful game.
“I personally think that it just has to stop,” the 19-year-old said. “No player wants to play football and have abuse like that.
“It puts the confidence down in players and the love of the sport will go very soon if it doesn’t stop.
“I think everyone should be happy and do what they are doing without receiving racist abuse.”
While racist abuse within grounds can lead to strong sanctions, social media has yet to find a way of effectively dealing with the issue.
Ian Holloway reacts as Romelu Lukaku is racially abused in Italy
Kick It Out and the Professional Footballers’ Association had separate meetings with Twitter last week, while Manchester United and Chelsea also intend to meet the social media platform to discuss racist abuse of their – and all – players.
“I don’t think it’s social media,” continued Sancho. “Some fans are just really passionate and obviously they just say what they want to say.
“I just feel they need to slow it down at bit – we’re still only human.
“Because we play football people might think we are just famous and ignorant to that, but we just love the sport and just want to play football.
“It is hard to see things like this because it feels like, ‘Why should we play football?’
“I felt that Romelu Lukaku handled it very well by not reacting and just carrying on playing.”
