U.K. soccer player Bukayo Saka says he won't let negativity
Posted by Temmy
Fri, July 16, 2021 11:40am
Bukayo Saka of England is consoled by teammates and Gareth Southgate, the head coach / manager of England, after missing the decisive penalty during the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship Final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
English soccer player Bukayo Saka has broken his silence days after enduring racist abuse online following his team's Euro championship loss to Italy on Sunday. The 19-year-old Arsenal star said in a social media post Thursday that he won't let negativity "break" him.
Saka along with teammates Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, who are all Black, were targeted with racist insults after missing penalty kicks. In his first public remarks since then, Saka vowed to return stronger to the pitch.
"I was hurting so much and I felt like I'd let you all and my England family down, but I can promise you this.. I will not let that moment or the negativity that I've received this week break me," he wrote.
Saka also called out social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, for failing to protect people from hate speech.
"I don't want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that me Marcus and Jadon have received this week," he said. "I knew instantly the kind of hate that I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages."
"There is no place for racism or hate of any kind in football or in any area of society and to the majority of people coming together to call out the people sending these messages, by taking action and reporting these comments to the police and by driving out the hate by being kind to one another, we will win," he added.
Four people have been arrested as part of a hate crime investigation into racist abuse directed at members of the England national soccer team, British police said. The investigation is still ongoing, and dozens more reports of abuse are being reviewed.
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