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Wed 01 September 2021 | 16:42

England players might not walk off if racially abused in Hungary

England are going to face Hungary at Puskas Arena on Thursday and Gareth Southgate has refused to confirm whether his side would walk off the pitch if Hungary’s supporters racially abused England players.

Hungary

were supposed to play their next three UEFA games behind closed doors due to the racist abuse from fans and homophobic banners in the stands during their Euro 2020 group stage games in Budapest, according to

Sky Sports

.

However, their match against

England

at Puskas Arena on Thursday is under FIFA jurisdiction and a full-capacity crowd of more than 60,000 are going to be present.

In October 2019, England decided to play on in Sofia after Bulgarian supporters racially abused England players in a Euro 2020 qualifier.

When England manager

Gareth Southgate

was asked whether his side would walk off if they faced racial abuse on Thursday, he responded:

"I don't think we should speak hypothetically.

"We know the experience we had before [in Bulgaria] but we're going into Hungary preparing for a game against a crowd that will get behind their team.

"We're looking forward to the challenge of the match and everything else is speculation really."

Asked whether the players were prepared for racist abuse, Southgate said:

"We always prepare the team for everything really.

"We've done that this week, but also we know we've had our own issues at home so we're not really focusing on other countries, we're focusing on ourselves and making sure we get our own things correct."

A homophobic banner was seen in the stands during Hungary’s defeat to Portugal in their opening game at Euro 2020 and also monkey chants were heard during their draw against France.

England defender

Harry Maguire

said of potential racist abuse:

"We speak about different scenarios going into every game, not just Hungary away.

"To speak about something in the future and something that you're predicting might happen is a bit unfair.

"As players, we're fully focused on going to Hungary and playing in front of a full crowd and a great atmosphere.

"It's a team which have shown they're more than capable at the Euros, so we're expecting a tough test and we're more focused on the game to try to get the three points to qualify for Qatar."


source: SportMob



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