England's World Cup Qualifier with Hungary marred by racist chanting; Gareth Southgate has labelled the racist abuse from some Hungary supporters towards Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham as "unacceptable"
Thursday 2 September 2021 23:54, UK
Gareth Southgate has praised Jude Bellingham for his "mature" reaction to suffering racist abuse from a section of Hungary supporters.
England ran out 4-0 winners in their World Cup Qualifier in Budapest, but the game was marred by racist abuse directed at their players.
Reporting from inside the Puskas Arena, Sky Sports News' Rob Dorsett confirmed he had heard "sporadic monkey chants from various areas of the crowd, directed primarily towards Raheem Sterling when he has touched the ball - and including when he set up Harry Kane for the second goal.
Having been told told about the abuse after the game, Southgate described the incidents as "unacceptable."
Dorsett also reported seeing Bellingham - the youngest member of the England squad at just 18-years-old - smiling and laughing at the racist chanting aimed at him whilst warming up as a substitute.
Speaking to Sky Sports News in Budapest, the England manager said: "I can only go on what you're telling me and if that's the case then it's not acceptable.
"We weren't conscious of it on the side. I don't know if the players on the pitch were. But everyone knows what we've spoken about for two or three years. They know what we stand for as a team and we have to hope we can continue to eradicate racism not only in football but from life in general.
"[Bellingham] shouldn't have to suffer that," Southgate added.
"It's fantastic from him that he's shown that maturity and I know our security guys have spoken to him since the game to get his account of that. We don't want to see it. Everyone knows it's not acceptable. He's shown great maturity in how he's dealt with it.
"[FIFA] have taken this fixture really seriously, they're taking accounts on everything. I'm not really across all of the process of that [whether the FA would make a complaint]. I'm sure [FIFA] will gather evidence from different sources."
Southgate had refused to criticise Hungary supporters ahead of the game as three of his own players had been targeted at home, with Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka receiving online racist abuse after missing penalties in the shoot-out loss to Italy.
He did call for the authorities to do more to protect players when asked if UEFA and FIFA needed to come together and make sure stadium bans were implemented across all competitions: Hungary are facing a stadium ban following the behaviour of their supporters at Euro 2020, but fans were allowed into the England game as it was played under FIFA's jurisdiction.
"I don't think our players can do anything more than have done over the past two or three years and in trying to get right messages out, make the right stand," he added.
"It's for other people to protect them, for me to protect them in the main, the authorities to protect them as well, they shouldn't have to be subjected to any form of racism.
"I have to say there's a balance in the crowd, as we know at home, not everyone at home causes problems.
"Tonight our anthem was really respected remarkably well, so it is not fair to criticise all of the Hungarian fans, a lot were generous and behaved themselves extremely well.
"It's a very similar situation to the one we find at home, I think. The individuals found responsible need to be dealt with. I think there's evidence people were filmed and we have got to hope that the authorities deal with that in the right way."
On the pitch, England dominated possession in a first half of few chances before bursting into life after the interval with goals from Sterling, Kane, Harry Maguire and Declan Rice.
"From the start the players were excellent," added Southgate.
"They showed the humility I spoke about in approaching every day this week the right way.
"They know the standards they need to set. I was very pleased with the first half - even though we didn't score we were in total control of the ball.
"We didn't get the final pass or dribble quite right, but knew that in the end they would tire. They couldn't keep chasing and defending - we made what was a very difficult fixture very comfortable in the end."
