Today’s back pages: England players ready to walk off and take a stand over racism

The newspapers report today that if any England player suffers racist abuse the team will walk off the pitch.

In this week’s Euro 2020 qualifying matches the Three Lions travel to the Czech Republic on Friday before facing Bulgaria on Monday.

In Sofia the Stadion Vasil Levski will be partially closed after Bulgaria were punished for fans’s behaviour in June.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

England boss Gareth Southgate has briefed his squad on Uefa’s three-stage protocol to racism, which ends with match officials abandoning the fixture if stadium announcements do not stop the problem.

Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham said: “If it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. [England captain] Harry Kane even said that if we’re not happy, if a player is not happy, we all come off the pitch together.

“We did speak about that [the protocol]. Harry Kane did ask the question about instead of going through the three steps, if we decide that we want to stop the game - no matter what the score is - if we’re not happy with it, as a team we’ll decide whether or not to stay on the pitch.

“If it happens and let’s say there’s a warning or whatever in the stadium, then it happens again, we have to make a decision as a team and with the staff.”