Two men arrested for racially abusing England footballers

POLICE have arrested two men for the suspicion of inciting online racial abuse on Twitter and Facebook through their triggering posts after England’s defeat in EURO 2020 on Sunday (11).

A man, 50,  has been arrested on Tuesday (13) for allegedly sending a bigoted tweet to England footballer Marcus Rashford, who was targeted with online abuse after missing a penalty during the Euro 2020 final loss to Italy on Sunday (11).

West Mercia Police confirmed that a suspect, from Powick, near Worcester, has been detained on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, stated media reports, adding that the man, who has not been named by authorities, is released but is still under investigation.

The man behind that account has since claimed he was hacked.

"We encourage people to make these reports and are pleased with the speed at which we have been able to deal with this incident," Mirror quoted Inspector Pete Nightingale. "We continue to work with the local football community and have links with the local clubs to ensure that this behaviour is dealt with appropriately."

Earlier, a parish councillor was arrested for allegedly posting “Whites only in future England teams” on his Facebook account.

Also claiming that his social media page had been hacked, the retired freight company boss, 63, from Minsterley, Shrops, was arrested by West Mercia Police on Monday (12) afternoon on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho - as well as Rashford - were all targeted by abusive posts in the wake of their missed spot-kicks.

Figures within the sport, government leaders and even the Duke of Cambridge were united in their condemnation for the abuse, as Southgate said: "For some of them to be abused is unforgivable really."

Twitter said it had proactively removed more than 1,000 posts over the past 24 hours which violated its policy and also taken swift action to permanently suspend a number of accounts.

A mural in Rashford's native Manchester, that was tarnished in the wake of the final, has since become a rallying point for people hitting out at racism, with hundreds of touching messages left in recent days.