Gareth Southgate, England manager, slammed racist chanting in his side's World Cup qualifying win over Hungary in Budapest. He called the perpetrators "dinosaurs."
England players sat down prior to the match as a sign of solidarity in fighting racism. The gesture was met by loud boos. Later, ITV reported that there had been monkey chants directed at Jude Bellingham and Raheem Sterling in England.
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Southgate claimed he didn't hear the chants but when he was made aware of them, confirmed that England had reported the incidents to European football’s governing body UEFA.
Southgate said that he was just trying to understand what happened, as we didn't know it at the bench. It sounds like there were some incidents.
"Everybody is aware of what we stand for as an organization and that's totally unacceptable. All of this has been reported to UEFA. We will see what happens next. This group of players and all staff can do nothing more to fight racism. We are trying to protect our part of it, and others have to take the right actions to make progress.
"I haven’t spoken to the players yet because I wasn’t aware of it while I was in my dressing room. However, I do know that our head of security spoke with the players and took their statements. It will be dealt with in the correct way, now and through the appropriate channels.
"I don’t believe our players can do more than they have done over the past two to three years to get messages out, to take correct stands and it is up to other people to protect them." They are my responsibility to protect them, but it is up to the authorities to do the same.
In a statement, the Football Association stated that it was extremely disappointing to read reports about discriminatory actions against some of England's players.
FIFA will investigate the matter. We will continue to support the staff and players in their collective determination to tackle discrimination in any form.
Southgate clarified that it wasn't the whole home crowd responsible for racist chanting. However, he reiterated that England has its own issues to resolve.
He said, "They shouldn’t be subjected any form of racism." "I must say that there is a balance in this crowd."
Gareth Southgate criticized the "dinosaurs" who racially abuse England players. Eddie Keogh, The FA/The FA via Getty Images
"At home, we all know that not everyone causes problems. Tonight, our national anthem really was respected very well. It is unfair to criticize all Hungarian fans. Many of them were generous and behaved extremely well.
"That is a very similar situation to what we have at home, I believe. They must be held accountable. There is evidence. We have to pray that the authorities will not film people and do the right thing.
They recognize that the world is changing. Although some people remain stuck in their thinking and prejudices, they will be the dinosaurs at the end as the world modernizes. Hungary is not as diverse as the United States in terms of its population. It is taking us longer to get there.
"And even if countries have less diversity, it's likely that their thinking is not the same as ours. We will keep doing what we do. We will keep trying to set the right example in our country for others who will be more affected by us than people elsewhere.
"I am always aware that when I speak about it, I don’t know if my tone or words are the right ones and I don’t want to dismiss it. We have good intentions and we want people to understand and respect them.
After failing to pay penalties in England's Euro 2020, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Scho, and Bukayo Saka, three England trio were accused of racism. Southgate called the abuse "unforgivable."
2019: Hungary was banned from chanting racist words in their stadium. They were also forced to play one game behind closed doors because of discriminatory fan behavior at Euro 2020. However, this did not apply to their clash with England.
England won 4-0 thanks in large part to the second-half goals of Harry Maguire, Harry Kane and Declan Rice.
