Arrests made as police track down social media abuse after Euro final
LONDON: Police have arrested 11 people as they continue a hate crimes investigation into social media messages sent after the Euro 2020 final.
The UK Football Policing Unit received 600 reports of racist comments sent to England’s black players after the defeat and judged 207 to be criminal.
Of these, 123 were posted by people overseas, while 34 came from the UK.
Police said people who think they can hide behind social media accounts “need to think again”.
A wave of racist social media abuse was aimed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after they missed penalties in the shoot-out at the Euro 2020 final last month.
It led to condemnations by the Football Association, England manager Gareth Southgate and the prime minister.
Chief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs’ Council Football Policing lead, said the investigation was proceeding “at pace” and said a “vast amount of work” went into identifying the 11 people arrested so far.
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