England coach: We will face "racist chants" this way

World football

England coach Gareth Southgate said his players would not leave the stadium as a protest if they were racially chastised after discussions between the players and the coaching staff.

Racist insults cast a shadow over England's 5-1 victory in Montenegro last March and the European Football Federation (UEFA) punished Montenegro for the next game without fans and other penalties.

Southgate said he had discussed this with Rahim Sterling, Danny Rose and Calum Hodson of Uruguay, and agreed that getting out of the stadium would make them concentrate rather than deal with the problem of racism.

"They were clear that they did not want to be focused on them in the end," Southgate told reporters after announcing the squad for the Netherlands in the final of the European Nations Cup next month.

"They want football to be the basic story. With regard to getting out of the stadium, this is an unseemly choice. There is no player in the team thinking about it as a choice … but they got a chance to speak out and influence this way."

Last month, Stirling, who was racially abused in Manchester City's match against Chelsea, signed an official statement demanding a harsh punishment against racist and discriminatory behavior, including a nine-point rebuke.

Southgate said that leaving the pitch would be no more than a "symbolic message" and would probably not lead to reform.

"It is not clear to me that if we did this, regardless of the possibility of sanctions, what would happen?" "It will be a message, but what is going to happen, there are many messages that have been expressed and there has been no change or reform. Learning is the key. "

"Many of the current and former players have talked amazingly about it in recent months. I do not think we need any other symbolic messages that this is not acceptable."

England play against the Netherlands on June 6 with the winner playing against Portugal or Switzerland in the final of the League of Nations, while losers play in the third place match.

(tagsToTranslate) Gareth Southgate (t) England (t) England (t) Netherlands