England qualify for Euro 2020 on Monday if they beat Bulgaria and Kosovo fail to win against Montenegro
Monday 14 October 2019 16:34, UK
Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane are keen to keep the focus on Monday’s European Qualifier in Bulgaria – but say the England squad has a plan for how to react if there is any racist abuse in Sofia.
The match at the Vasil Levski Stadium will be played with a partial stadium ban as a punishment from UEFA for racist incidents when Bulgaria hosted Kosovo and visited the Czech Republic - both in June.
Bulgaria manager Krasimir Balakov said ahead of the game that English football has a bigger problem with racism - dismissing the idea it was an issue in his own country.
Southgate, though, refused to be drawn on his counterparts words, appearing to be more concerned about the welfare of his players and the match itself.
"Well I say the same as I said the other night in Prague," said Southgate.
"We are guests in another country and I have always said we have as many issues in own country to resolve than anywhere else.
"Everyone wants us to talk about football, for the players and both teams the same.
"We had to prepare our players for what happened in Montenegro, so that was a process that we needed to go through before our next away fixtures.
"Outside of that, we trust the authorities to make sure everything is in place and everybody involved in the game from both countries is wanting to talk about the match."
Kane mirrored his manager's words as they sat side-by-side at the Sunday news conference.
"The most important thing is we are all fully focused on the game tomorrow night, getting the three points and putting us in a great position," said Kane.
"We had a meeting at the start of the week on things that could happen but they might not happen. There's obviously a protocol in place that UEFA have set.
"From my point of view and the players' point of view, we are here to do a job on the football pitch and hopefully we don't have to cross that bridge.
"We will see what happens but our full focus is on the game."
Here is what the Bulgaria manager said on Sunday ahead of the match...
"What I can say is that I don't think we have a problem," Balakov said.
"In the Bulgarian championship, we have a lot of players of different ethnicities and skin colour. I don't think that we have this big problem like, for example, England do.
"I would like to focus on football because at the end of the day we're all civilised Europeans and we're all working for this sport and that's all the matters."
Asked to clarify his remark on England, Balakov added: "What I meant was that in the Bulgarian championship we've not had such problems.
"While there have been incidents in various levels of English football involving racism, which I consider something normal because it's a big country with a very diverse population.
"But we don't have this problem in Bulgaria, I can assure you of that."
Pushed on whether England players have anything to be worried about, Balakov said: "Once again, it's not an issue that has happened recently in the national team games, meaning racist chants or whatever.
"I would once again advise people to think and talk about football because this is the reason why we're actually here. We should not discuss something that has not even happened yet."
