Published 15:20 IST, October 19th 2019
FIFA 20 unveils new kit; shows support to PL's anti-racism campaign
EA Sports FIFA unveiled new kit on Friday which will soon be available in FIFA 20 to players, showing support to Premier League's 'No Room For Racism'
Joining hands with the Premier League in the backdrop of heightened incidents of racial abuse, EA Sports FIFA has announced that the FIFA 20 will soon have kits against racism in football. This comes after the Premier League initiated the campaign 'No Room For Racism' on October 18 which received widespread support from the football fraternity. Several Premier Clubs including the likes of Manchester City, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur showed heavy support for the campaign as they shared the video across their Twitter handles as well.
Premier League launches 'No Room For Racism'
The official Twitter handle of EA Sports FIFA on Friday unveiled the new kits on Friday with a picture that featured FIFA 20 figures of Premier League players sporting the new kit with 'No Room For Racism' written on it. The picture included Leicester City's James Maddison, Chelsea's young hero Tammy Abraham, Liverpool's star defender Virgil Van Dijk, and Manchester United's Jesse Lingard rocking the black and white kits. This comes after the Euro 2020 qualifier game between England and Bulgaria on October 14 in which England players suffered from racial abuse by the Bulgarian fans. The match that saw England thrash Bulgaria by 6-0 courtesy of goals by Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, and Ross Barkley was halted twice due to the hurling of racial abuses by the Bulgarian fans. the game had to be halted twice even before half time, and an announcement was made urging the fans to not hurl any more racial abuses. The three-step UEFA protocol was followed and the referee had a discussion with the team's respective captains. Bulgaria's captain Ivelin Popov even went near the stands to urge the fans to stop the chants but failed to have an impact.
Bulgaria Head Coach Resigns
Bulgaria Head Coach Krasimir Balakov, on Friday resigned from his post citing 'unsatisfactory performance' of the Bulgarian team as a reason. Coach Balakov had stated that he heard no racial abuses during the match and said that he would not apologize unless the alleged charges were proven by UEFA. However, he later issued a statement apologizing to the English national team and anyone who was offended. Bulgarian Football Union President Borislav Mihailov had also resigned earlier. The UEFA is scheduled to investigate the charges of racial abusing against Bulgarian fans on October 28.
Updated 21:19 IST, October 19th 2019