Gareth Southgate Fears That Racism Will Affect How Managers Choose Their Penalty Takers

• Gareth Southgate has admitted that racism fears have made it difficult for him to prepare his players for potential penalty shootouts in upcoming tournaments
• England’s players were subjected to racist abuse on social media platforms after missing the penalties that cost the side the Euro Championships against Italy
• Southgate has argued that managers need to choose penalty takers based on their abilities to score and not what might happen to them if they miss

England national team head coach Gareth Southgate has expressed fears over racist abuse in future decisions on who will be taking penalties for his side.

The Three Lions suffered one of the most abhorrent abuses in the aftermath of the Euro 2020 Championships. The side put in a gallant performance and reached the finals but lost to Italy after post-match penalties.

Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka all lost their penalties against Italy and were subjected to racial abuse afterwards. The UK Football Policing Unit got 600 reports of racist comments. The Mirror now reports that this could be an issue going forward according to Southgate.

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I have to say it never crossed my mind before. 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.

But it wouldn’t be right to not pick the players you think are best to take them because of what the possible consequences of them missing would be. I’ve got to pick them on the belief they are going to score.

In 2018, Southgate similarly led the national side to the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup in Russia but they lost to beaten finalists Croatia in extra time. It is an issue that the 51-year-old will be worried about as he continues with preparations for the Qatar edition later this year.

We know that’s ludicrous. We know that’s outrageous to even think about. I’m trying to balance whether the question is about the racism itself, which is abhorrent and unacceptable, and what you’re identifying, that there’s another layer of complexity in making that decision. We went through a process of preparing for penalties. We’ve definitely reviewed that.

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The England boss will be hoping to lead his side to a major silverware in over four decades with a win in Qatar. They will face British rivals Wales, the United States of America and Iran in the group stages.

Ukraine fans applaud their players despite Wales' defeat

Sports Brief earlier reported on how Ukraine fans applauded their team after their defeat against Wales.

They may not have won the game, but they surely won the hearts of a lot of people.

The Ukrainian national football team failed in their pursuit of qualifying for the World Cup after an equally spirited Wales beat them in the play-off finals.