England to Complain About Montenegro Football Match Racism

Filip Rudic | Belgrade | BIRN | March 26, 2019

England's Football Association will file a complaint to European football's governing body UEFA after its players were subjected to racist abuse by fans at an international match in Montenegro.

England’s Football Association will file an official complaint to UEFA over the racist chants directed at its players by Montenegrin fans during the two countries’ Euro 2020 qualifier match in Podgorica on Monday evening.

According to The Guardian, Danny Rose, Raheem Sterling and Callum Hudson-Odoi were subjected to racist abuse during the match that England won 5-1.

Media reported that Montenegro fans made monkey noises at Rose, Sterling and Hudson-Odoi.

A lighter was also allegedly thrown at Sterling, who responded to the racist chants by facing the Montenegro fans and cupping his ears after scoring England’s fifth goal. Sterling wrote on Twitter that it was the “best way to silence the haters (and yeah I mean racists)”.

British Sports Minister Miriam Davies condemned the “absolutely unacceptable racist abuse” during the match.

“UEFA must quickly investigate then take strong and swift action,” Davies wrote on Twitter.

England’s manager Gareth Southgate confirmed that he heard the racist chants and announced that he is filing a complaint to UEFA.

“We’ll report it, I know what I heard, abuse of Danny Rose when he got booked at the end of the game,” Southgate said, according to England’s Football Association.

“There’s no doubt in my mind at what happened. We’ll make sure that’s reported officially because it’s not acceptable. We’ve got to make sure we support our players,” he added.

Montenegrin media almost completely ignored the incident on Tuesday morning.

Various Balkan countries’ football federations have been fined several times by international sports authorities for racist displays by fans in the previous years. Danny Rose was also targeted by racist chants when he played a match in Serbia in 2012.