Southgate says Euros final racism adds ‘layer of difficulty’ to shootout plans

Gareth Southgate says the racial abuse suffered by Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford after they missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final adds “another layer of difficulty” to preparations for shootouts at major tournaments.

All three players were subjected to racial slurs after Italy’s win at Wembley and Southgate admitted that it may create an unwelcome hurdle in planning for this winter’s World Cup. It was put to the England manager that the fear of being abused may run through players’ minds before taking spot-kicks and he said it was a potential scenario he would take seriously, even though he does not intend it to impact on his selection of takers.

“I have to say it never crossed my mind before,” he said. “It will [now]. We’ve got 55 years of talking about penalties and everything else. So now we’ve got another layer that’s going to make it extremely difficult for us to win anything.

“We went through a process of preparing for penalties. We’ve definitely reviewed that. Some of the boys have taken more with their clubs. Bukayo has taken a couple for his club, which were massively important moments that epitomised what he’s about. But indirectly we have created another layer of difficulty in overcoming a penalty shootout. I have got to take all these things into consideration and it is incredibly complex.”

Southgate explained that he had asked himself, “Have I created this situation here for the boys?” when reflecting on the defeat to Italy the following day, but concluded that the risk of negative ramifications came second to his faith that they would not miss.

“It wouldn’t be right to not pick the players you think are best to take them because of what the possible consequences of them missing would be,”