League One rivals Portsmouth launch investigation into alleged racism in England chat between academy players

Screen shots purporting to be from the chat following Sunday’s penalty shoot-out defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 final were widely circulated on social media on Wednesday morning, and the Sky Bet League One club are now looking into the matter.

A club statement read: “Portsmouth Football Club are aware of images circulating on social media that allegedly originate from an academy u18 group chat and which are discriminatory in nature.

“The club have launched an immediate investigation and will provide an update once this has been completed.

“Portsmouth Football Club strongly condemn racism and are totally committed to the elimination of all forms of discrimination. There is no place for it in our game or society as a whole.”

Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were subjected to racist abuse on public social media platforms following Sunday’s defeat.

The Football Association condemned the abuse and said it would do all it could to support the players affected.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told those who had abused England players to “crawl back under the rock from which you emerged”, and discussed the matter with social media companies on Tuesday.

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