July 21 – Jess Carter’s brave decision to call out the racist trolls polluting her social media feeds carries an all-too-familiar echo of England’s most shameful sporting moment – the vile abuse that Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka endured after Euro 2020’s penalty heartbreak against Italy when all three players missed their penalty kicks during the shootout loss.
The Lionesses defender has started all four games in England’s Women’s Euro 2025 campaign, yet instead of basking in tournament glory ahead of Tuesday’s semi-final against Italy, she’s been forced to confront the same poison that left three young England heroes questioning what playing for England means.
Carter’s Sunday social media post carried the weary resignation of someone who’s watched this playbook unfold before: “From the start of the tournament I have experienced a lot of racial abuse. Whilst I feel every fan is entitled to their own opinion on performance and result, I don’t agree or think it’s ok to target someone’s appearance or race.”
The parallels are sickeningly stark. Just as Rashford, Sancho, and Saka became targets after the Wembley final, Carter has discovered that representing England while being Black makes you fair game for keyboard warriors whose idea of patriotism involves racially abusing the players wearing the Three Lions.
“As a result of this I will be taking a step back from social media and leaving it to a team to deal with,” Carter continued, echoing the protective measures her male counterparts were forced to adopt when murals were defaced and social media became a cesspit.
Carter’s hope that “speaking out will make the people writing this abuse think twice” shows admirable optimism, though history suggests otherwise. The same platforms that hosted the 2021 hate-fest are still providing the stage for 2025’s sequel.
FA CEO Mark Bullingham’s response carries the institutional fatigue of an organisation that’s been here before: “Regrettably, this is not the first time this has happened to an England player, so we had measures in place to allow us to respond quickly.”
“Our priority is Jess and giving her all the support she needs,” Bullingham said. “We strongly condemn those responsible for this disgusting racism. As soon as we were made aware of the racist abuse Jess received, we immediately contacted UK police.”
The fact that England’s football authorities have “measures in place” for racist abuse tells its own damning story – this isn’t an aberration, it’s standard operating procedure.
Four years on from that penalty shootout nightmare, England’s players are still paying the price for daring to represent their country while Black.
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