Social media users have reacted with disbelief after The Sun told victimised England players “we’ve got your back” in the wake of England’s defeat in the Euro2020 final.
Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all failed from the spot on Sunday night as England went down on penalties.
The trio’s social media pages were quickly flooded with racist comments, leading many to condemn the “disgusting behaviour”.
The prime minister, the Football Association and the Duke of Cambridge have all condemned the abuse, while England manager Gareth Southgate described the hate directed at the players as “unforgivable”.
During a Downing Street briefing on coronavirus, Mr Johnson said: “To those who have been directing racist abuse at some of the players, I say shame on you and I hope you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged.
“Because this entire team played like heroes and I’m sure that this is just the beginning of their achievements, and I say bring on Qatar next year, and let’s also dare to start to hope, together with Ireland, our United Kingdom can host the World Cup in 2030.”
But it was the front page of The Sun newspaper that caught the attention of people on social media this morning.
Featuring pictures of Rashford, Sancho and Saka the redtop splashed ‘We’ve got your back’, much to the disbelief of many people on social media.
Here’s what people had to say:
Rebekah Brooks has felt the tide changing and told Harry Cole to tone down his ‘anti woke’ BLM=Marxism rhetoric. Don’t be fooled for a moment. They gamed racism when they wanted to. No change of heart. Just opportunism and fear
— Peter Jukes (@peterjukes) July 12, 2021
— james mcmahon (@jamesjammcmahon) July 12, 2021
Do one! ? pic.twitter.com/r39f4tpj53
— Liam Young (@liamyoung) July 12, 2021
Possibly the most hypocritical thing I've EVER seen #DontBuyTheSun pic.twitter.com/TgCOVmS3zM
— Hol (@holliexharvey) July 12, 2021
“Alexa, show me hypocrisy”#dontbuythesun pic.twitter.com/54sTNEUecv
— Secret Drug Addict (@ScrtDrugAddict) July 12, 2021
I mean it's just objectively not true. #dontbuythesun pic.twitter.com/YA0ArAxfDL
— Femi (@Femi_Sorry) July 12, 2021
The first pic is tomorrow’s paper, the rest are previous editions. #dontbuythesun pic.twitter.com/mA1RNtWJFd
— GB. Grumpy but hopeful. (@gordonbruce7) July 12, 2021
I haven't bought the Scum since 1996, but this is hypocrisy on steroids#dontbuythesun pic.twitter.com/d1hbdZpYTL
— Stella Ridgway?, 3.5% (@starukkiwi) July 12, 2021
Related: Baroness Warsi: We Conservatives need to think about our role in feeding racism in our country