[ad_1]
It has been a year since the England team was the victim of horrendous racist abuse in Bulgaria during a qualifying match for the European Championship in October 2019.
During a comfortable 6-0 victory, the team was subjected to monkey chants and Nazi salutes from local fans. Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings, making his debut that night, was the first of the players to report abuse to the referees. Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling was also attacked early in the match.
According to UEFA protocols on racist abuse by fans, the match was stopped, first at minute 28 with an announcement from the stadium in the first stage warning fans that the game could be abandoned. Then there was a second stoppage in the 43rd minute after discussions between England coach Gareth Southgate and the referee.
The players could have entered the locker room at that time, as a second stage of action, but Mings later told the media that they had decided to continue until halftime.
The third step would have been to leave the party. In the end, after team discussions at halftime, it didn’t come to that. But England had taken a high-profile position as the first international team to stop a game in response to racist abuse.
Former England striker and pundit Ian Wright called it a “seminal moment” and the world soccer media reacted with widespread praise for England and condemnation of the abuse.
One year later South Gate and England coach Chris Powell spoke exclusively to BBC Sport about his memories of that night and the changes that have been made since then.
On experiencing the racist chant on the bench
The match was played in a partially closed Vasil Levski stadium following racist behavior by some Bulgarian fans during the previous qualifiers against Kosovo and the Czech Republic in June 20119. The preparation for the match was dominated by concerns about possible incidents of racism, and Southgate had held a meeting with his players over the weekend to underline UEFA’s three-step protocol.
England coach Gareth Southgate:
It is not a night you want to be involved with and it is not a type of night you want to re-experience. My thoughts at all times were how we take care of our players, how we protect our players, both when entering the game and during the night.
Experiencing the pressure as a head coach due to the focus of attention we knew existed and the fact that the decisions we were going to make were going to resonate in Europe, if not the world, was a unique experience.
We try to do the best job we could, everyone will have an opinion on what should or should not have been. We highlighted an issue that is unacceptable and we were the first international team to stop a match for those reasons.
It’s not something I’m particularly proud of; It is not a night where pride is the right word to describe how we deal with it.
I felt that we sent a strong message and we sent a positive message. I think that as a team and also as a group of staff, we continue to do so. We care about each other, we are united and do not consider discrimination of any kind to be acceptable. We will continue to try to have a voice because we hope to make a difference.
Chris Powell He had just joined the England coaching staff at the time as part of the Football Association’s Elite Coaches placement program:
That was such a moving moment for me what happened that night. Gareth, in his very clever way, spoke to me a week before we arrived at camp.
We talked for half an hour on the phone and he just said if you were a player, what would you want from me as a coach? I thought it was a great question, because we knew that we had intelligence that we could suffer from racism in Bulgaria and we wanted to be well prepared.
Gareth wanted to make sure we were prepared for what was coming. I just said support. Support from you, support from the president, support from everyone, including the staff.
In the week before Bulgaria, Gareth had a meeting with everyone, not just the players, but the entire staff. I said “don’t talk about it every day because then it will play in people’s minds”. He said it at the beginning of the camp and everyone took what he said into account.
I know for a fact that the leadership group, the main characters, Harry Kane, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling met. We decided how we would approach it and we felt like we would follow UEFA protocol which I think was correct.
I know some people felt that maybe we should have left, but we were the first international team in the world to stop a game to complain about racism.
We did step one when it was first heard on Tyrone Mings and we were ready to go to step two which was right down the middle of the middle. We were ready to do step three. I know that some people agreed and others did not.
I felt the way we behaved, the way we handled it, the way we discussed it with the referee, the fourth official and the way our president and everyone who is part of the FA organization felt, We handled it brilliantly as a group.
Our demeanor was very calm. We all knew what we were doing, it wasn’t someone doing something outside of the message; we all knew how to behave.
I felt like that showed the rest of the world that this was a soccer team, a nation that was united in what they believed. I was very, very proud, not only of the players and the staff, but also of our fans at night. .
They can get bad press at times, but I felt the support of everyone that night and how they sang and how they were proud of not only our display but our behavior, they reflected our behavior.
It was a really great moment. He was very proud to be a black Englishman that night. I can’t say anything more than that. People will not always agree with what we did and I understand that, but I felt it was the right path for us.
The Elite Coach Placement Program
The Elite Coach Placement Program was introduced in 2018 with the goal of trying to solve the challenge of underrepresentation of BAME (Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority) coaches. The idea behind this was for the off-field support staff to reflect the diversity of the playing teams. In the England team for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, 11 of the 23 players were of BAME origin.
Powell:
It is a great honor for me to be part of the England men’s organization. I know how important the role is, not just to me personally, but on the larger scale of things, which would mean being seen working among the elite players in the country. I think how that works, I have to build relationships and trust with those players.
I would be lying if I told you that I have not talked to the black players quite casually because I think it is important that they feel comfortable, especially if you are a new player in the group. You have to get used to your surroundings and what it’s like to be an England player and how to behave. If there are certain issues that people haven’t addressed before and I’m not just culturally speaking, it could be something pretty simple.
I’m there to encourage and inspire, but also to make sure they feel part of the group and what Gareth is trying to build as a culture for the whole group. “
South Gate:
There are two things. One is the training scheme that has brought diversity to the teams and also visibility for other coaches who might aspire to be coaches in the future. I should also note that in our youth teams, we have seven teams and three of our head coaches are of black or ethnic minority origin.
We’ve taken positive steps, but those people got those roles because they were the best people for the job. Combined with that, we are also committed to providing opportunities in the coach placement scheme.
I feel that more and more young coaches are coming from those communities. There are some outstanding coaches who will be role models in the future. With any scheme like this, you need role models to inspire people in the future.
People need to see that it is possible before they are ready to commit to further education and learning to be a coach.
Changes in the world after George Floyd’s death
George Floyd’s death brought the world’s attention to the discussion about race and equality. Floyd, died after being immobilized by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25.
Since then, soccer league players, staff and officials across the country have knelt in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The Premier League has continued to kneel this season with the ‘No Place for Racism’ campaign.
South Gate:
I think everyone would react differently because the story progresses. At the time [in Bulgaria one year ago] we felt we took an approach that was appropriate because it was truly unique. No one had come as far as we have. We also recognize that we would not stop and accept it happening to us again.
You can sit here and talk without the responsibility of living something. I think all the word in the last few months has advanced.
Educationally, I think everyone has moved on. I think that the events of the last few months have caused the majority of the world’s population to stop and think and acknowledge that there are things that we have all been wrong about in the past and there are things that we all need to learn more about.
That can only be positive because, in the end, education is a fundamental part of improving the situation.
