Euro 2020 warm up: Gareth Southgate lambasts fans for mocking England players

England coach Gareth Southgate has slammed the fans who jeered England players for taking a knee ahead of England's 1-0 friendly win over Austria on Wednesday. A section of the 7000 fans that were present in Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium for the Euro 2020 warm-up mocked the England players for taking a knee before they were drowned by the applause from the supporters.

Advertisment

Also read: Tim Sparv, Teemu Pukki included in Finland Euro 2020 squad - Sky247 Blog

The players have been taking a knee before kickoff to support the 'Black Lives Matter' movement. Southgate feels that some fans see this as a politically inspired move and don't understand the message behind it. He emphasized that they do this to show solidarity with their black players.

"I was pleased it was drowned out by the majority of the of crowd but we can't deny it happened," Southgate said. "It's not something on behalf of our Black players that I wanted to hear because it feels as though it is a criticism of them."

Advertisment

"I think the majority of people understand it. Some people aren't quite understanding the message and I suppose we are seeing that across a number of football grounds at the moment"

Further, English midfielder Jack Grealish also revealed that the players were not happy with fans' behaviour.

"I think that will get talked about in the next few days," he told Sky Sports. "It's a thing we don't want in football in general and especially in our games."

Advertisment

Follow SKY247.net for all the latest cricket, football, and other sports news from all parts of the world.