Euros 2024: Police beef up antiracism measures after 'horrendous abuse' directed at England squad

The England team were visited by officers from the UK Football Policing Unit at their training base, ITV News Sports Editor Steve Scott and Producer Joe Wardropper report

England's men's footballers have been briefed on how police are cracking down on racist social media abuse ahead of next month's Euros in Germany.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the national lead for policing football, said officers were conscious of the "horrendous abuse" directed at some black players after England’s defeat in the final of the 2020 European Championships.

"We spoke to the squad and reassured them that we treated it seriously... [and] explained the reporting mechanism to the players," he said.

The England team were visited by officers from the UK Football Policing Unit at their training base at St George's Park earlier this year and advised on how to block abusive content.

"It's appalling," Mr Roberts said. "You think about the consequences for the player's families. What if the children see it?"

The FA’s head of security Steve Lewis said the England players "listened intently" to the briefing.

Co-operation with social media companies around online abuse companies had also "improved massively", Roberts revealed.

Firms had previously been "shoddy" and slow in handing over evidence in the time window necessary for police to prosecute suspects under the Malicious Communications Act, he told ITV News.

But companies were now acting much more quickly: ''I have no complaints, they seem keen to work with us", Roberts said.

Around 300,000 England fans are expected to travel to the European Championships in Germany, in what is being described as the most accessible football tournament in years.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Tuesday, Roberts revealed that the number of football banning orders issued to supporters ahead of Euro 24 had risen to 2,000.

Fans subject to banning orders are forced to surrender their passports for the duration of the competition, in order to minimise the risk of hooliganism.

But police stressed that England fans should be judged on their behaviour in recent tournaments, not their reputations.

"The vast majority of our fans travel to all sorts of places and don’t get themselves into trouble", Roberts said, pointing to a total of two arrests at the Russia World Cup in 2018 and none at all in Qatar four years later.

But the 2020 Euros, delayed a year because of Covid, were marred by scenes of chaos at the final at Wembley, where dozens were detained after ticketless fans stormed the turnstiles.

German police present at the briefing warned that "grossly offensive behaviour" would not be tolerated.

"There is of course a red line you shouldn't cross because in Germany we have hard restrictions about breaking the law if you do certain behaviour relating to the Second World War… If you do this you should fear the consequences", Senior Chief Superintendent Oliver Studhoff told ITV News.

But Chief Constable Roberts stressed that shared cultural sensitivities would reduce the risk of a misunderstanding between German police and English fans.

"Germany is not an entirely dissimilar culture, the Germans like a beer, they are used to people having a drink," he said.

But Roberts admitted police would have to "live with" the decision by UK courts to lift the football banning order imposed on the far-right activist and self-proclaimed "football hooligan" Tommy Robinson.

"We’re not naïve, we’ll have people out there", he said.

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