Published 13:41 IST, October 19th 2019
Premier League begins campaign against racism amidst recent incidents
The Premier League on Friday has begun a campaign with No Room For Racism on Friday after it tweeted a video which was soon shared by top Premier League clubs
Amidst the heightened incidents of racial abuse in football, the Premier League on Friday begun a campaign against racism in football. The Premier League tweeted a video that featured several football players including England and Manchester City Winger Raheem Sterling who was a victim of racial abuse in the Euro 2020 qualifier match between England and Bulgaria on October 14. The Premier League official Twitter handle tweeted the video with the hashtag No Room For Racism which was captioned, "There’s room for passion, for rivalry and for drama but there’s #NoRoomForRacism, anywhere." Premier League clubs like Manchester City, Everton and West Ham United also posted the video showing solidarity against racism in football.
No Room For Racism campaign receives widespread support
The campaign started by Premier League has received widespread support across the globe with several Premier League clubs posting the video on their Twitter handle as well. EA Sports FIFA have also unveiled a new kit in the recently launched FIFA 20 and announced that the kits would soon be available to players across the globe. The campaign comes after the England National Team suffered from racial abuse from Bulgarian fans in their Euro 2020 qualifier match. The match saw England thrash Bulgaria by 6-0 courtesy of goals by Marcus Rashford, Harry Kane, Ross Barkley, and Raheem Sterling. Due to the racial abuses hurled, 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 with the first step being activated even before the game touched 30 minutes and the referee had a discussion with the team's respective captains.
Bulgaria Head Coach Resigns
Bulgaria head coach Krasimir Balakov resigned on Friday amid the fallout of the racist abuse suffered by England's players. Balakov, however, cited the 'unsatisfactory performance' of Bulgaria in recent times as a reason behind his resignation. Balakov had earlier also stated that he heard no racial abuses during the match between England and Bulgaria and said that he would only apologize if the charges pressed were proven to be true. Meanwhile, UEFA has decided to investigate the charges of racial abuse pressed against Bulgaria on October 28.
Updated 21:20 IST, October 19th 2019