Following England's defeat in last night's EURO 2020 final to Italy, several players from the English squad were targets of racial abuse.

There was nothing to separate the two teams in regular time with the score held at 1-1. Even after 30 minutes of extra time, the score was level, meaning a penalty shootout was to decide the game. It ended with a 3-2 result in Italy's favor as youngsters Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka missed their spot-kicks.

People went as far as defacing Marcus Rashford's mural in his hometown of Manchester with racial slurs.

Those have since been covered up with positive messages such as “role model”, “wonderful human, “hero”, and “You stepped up. You always step up. Hero!”

The English football association released an official statement following the online racial abuse of their players. Vowing to support each and every player facing such discrimination, they also called out on social media companies to take action & responsibility.

The statement continues with:

“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.”

Rashford's mural was commissioned after his efforts to help the most vulnerable children in England during the pandemic. He helped feed over 1.3 million kids who couldn't afford school lunches themselves. This extraordinary achievement gained him an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) the third highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award.