A mural artwork of England and Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has been vandalised following England’s Euro 2020 final loss to Italy.
Penalties were needed on Sunday night, July 11, to decide the winner of the European Championship match between both countries after the match ended 1-1 at full time.
After Italy won 3-2 on spot-kicks due to Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missing, all three players have been subjected to tons of racial abuse from online trolls.
The Rashford mural – placed in the streets of Manchester, was created by street artist Akse in partnership with community project ‘Withington Walls,’ whose co-founder has expressed his disappointment.
Ed Wellard said;
“I’ve come out to fix what I could immediately and cover up what I couldn’t and hopefully we will get the artist out to come and fix it.
“We dared to dream yesterday and our hopes were dashed but to wake up to this is more depressing. Racism seems to be more and more prevalent.”
The English football association has released a statement vowing to support Rashford, Sancho and Saka.
“We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team,” the FA statement read.
“We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible.
“We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game, but we implore the government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real-life consequences.
“Social media companies need to step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution and support making their platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse.”
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