MLS response to online racial abuse of England Footballers

  • 15/07/2021

The Manchester Law Society strongly condemns the online racist abuse and racially aggravated damage targeted at Marcus Rashford MBE, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka which followed England’s defeat on Sunday evening.

 

Ahead of the UEFA EURO 2020 final, manager Gareth Southgate had said that the English National team is often a catalyst for bringing communities together. Togetherness should not be contingent on the success of the football players, who after the loss to Italy, were subjected to abhorrent racist abuse on social media (despite their outstanding contributions to get England to the final in the first place).

 

The fallout of the match also saw a mural of Marcus Rashford located at Withington in Manchester defaced.  However, we are proud that Manchester came together to repair the damage, with thousands of messages of support left all over the mural in response.  This is what Manchester is about.

 

We stand in solidarity with Marcus Rashford MBE, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka and all Black people and people of colour who are members of the Manchester Law Society, against racism.  We are resolute in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, to ensure that our members do not have to fear or experience the profound and painful effects of discrimination, prejudice or bias.

 

We recognise that there is still much work to be done and encourage any members who find themselves in need of our support to contact us, or to add your voice to our efforts by joining the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee.