Southgate will 'think twice' before black footballers take penalties over racist abuse fears

7 June 2022, 08:42 | Updated: 7 June 2022, 10:53

England manager Gareth Southgate has warned he will think twice about asking black players to take spot kicks following the racist abuse they received after the Euro 2020 final last year.

Southgate said racist abuse adds "another layer" of problems when deciding which players should take the penalties.

Marcus Rashford, Bukaya Saka and Jadon Sancho were all targeted after missing spot kicks during a penalty shoot out in the Euro 2020 final in July.

Southgate, asked whether black players could now be scared to step up for a spot kick, said: "We're goosed then. We've got 55 years of talking about penalties and everything else.

"So we've now got another layer that's going to make it extremely difficult for us to win anything."

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Southgate went on to say Saka was "massively courageous" for taking penalties for his club, Arsenal, this season following the abuse.

He added: "But indirectly, we have created another layer of difficulty in overcoming a penalty shoot-out.

"I have got to take all of those things into consideration and it is incredibly complex."

But he said it was clear from Euro 2020 the England team did not have enough players who frequently took penalties for their clubs.

"We only had [Harry] Kane and [Marcus] Rashford who was the second one in after Bruno Fernandes really.

"We have got to do that work. Maybe they are getting some practice with clubs, which definitely Chelsea and Liverpool did this year.

"But we've got to cover that work in our camps on the days we can and make it really focused and specific. We're doing what we can. Psychology is definitely a part of it and I have to be aware of all of those things."

England are in Munich for the Nations League game with Germany - who will also take the knee in a stand against racism.

Southgate has warned travelling fans that any bad behaviour will have a negative impact on the team.

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