The England national team’s visit to Downing Street reportedly looks set to be put on hold amid the ongoing racism row that seems to be brewing between some players in the team and the UK government.
In an extraordinary move yesterday, Aston Villa and England defender Tyrone Mings tweeted directly to Home Secretary Priti Patel over her role in fuelling the racist abuse that has been aimed at some of the national side’s players in the wake of their Euro 2020 final defeat against Italy.
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See below for Mings’ tweet as he essentially accused the government of playing a part in this due to the public criticism from Patel and from Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the players’ decision to take the knee before matches…
You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens. https://t.co/fdTKHsxTB2
— Tyrone Mings (@OfficialTM_3) July 12, 2021
This might just be Mings tweeting individually, but it might well be that there is a general bad feeling towards the government in this group of players due to the lack of backing they received for choosing to protest against racism.
With some of the players now being on the receiving end of these attacks, it just highlights even more how much of a problem this is in society.
It doesn’t reflect too well on certain politicians, and it’s intriguing to see claims that plans to have the England team for a reception at Downing Street have now been shelved…
I’m told that plans to have the England team to Downing Street for a reception this week have been shelved, with attention turning instead to the PM’s levelling up speech in a few days.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) July 13, 2021
All in all, this looks like the government have really shot themselves in the foot by taking aim at this hugely popular England team who performed so well at Euro 2020 this summer.
Most fans would surely agree that these players did the country proud with their displays and with the way they’ve conducted themselves on and off the pitch, so this surely won’t end well for Patel, Johnson and co.
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