Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford had failed in the European Championship final against Italy on penalties and were then massively verbally abused. Now the police have arrested eleven alleged agitators.
The police arrested 11 people following the racist insults of the English national soccer players Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford in the course of the European Championship final. As the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) announced, 600 references to racist comments against the England trio had been received after their misses on penalties. 207 of the posts were classified as criminal. 123 of them came from abroad, 34 came from the United Kingdom.
UKFPU specializes in fighting crime, violence and disruption at football events and works with the Home Office.
Some of those arrested face up to seven years in prison
“There are people out there who think they can hide behind a social media profile and post such horrific comments,” said UKFPU director Mark Roberts. “We have investigators who proactively look for offensive comments related to the game, and if they reach a criminal level, those who post them will be arrested.”
The investigation was proceeding “briskly,” said Roberts, and it had taken “a lot of work” to identify the eleven people arrested so far. According to the British broadcaster “Sky News”, they are between 18 and 63 years old. According to the broadcaster BBC, most of the arrests were made on suspicion of spreading hate messages or sending messages that are “grossly offensive”, contain a threat or are “threatening”. These violations could face sentences ranging from six months to two years in prison.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, which in the most serious cases can lead to a prison sentence of up to seven years.
Saka, Sancho and Rashford failed in the lost European Championship final against Italy on penalties. As a result, they were overwhelmed by a wave of racial abuse on social media. England’s Football Association, national coach Gareth Southgate and Prime Minister Boris Johnson had condemned them.
,, DPA
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