England will have people placed in stadium to monitor for racist abuse in Sofia

England will have people placed around the Stadion Vasil Levski in Sofia during their Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria monitoring for racist abuse against their players.Following the abuse some of their players received in Montenegro earlier this year, the game against Bulgaria next Monday is seen as another high-risk fixture after Ashley Young was on the receiving end of offensive chanting during Englands Euro 2012 qualifier in Sofia.The Three Lions will have eyes and ears in different parts of the stadium ready to report any abuse and kick-start the three-step process in the event of racism. View this post on InstagramA post shared by England (@england) on Oct 1, 2019 at 4:32am PDTFirst the referee stops the game and a stadium announcement is made, then the players will leave the pitch before an eventual abandonment.Boss Gareth Southgate says England have faith in that process should anything unsavoury happen.We have a team manager in a certain part of the stadium, so we have different people in communication with UEFA anyway in different parts of the stadium, he said.Weve not had to change their roles but we just have an awareness of exactly what those procedures would be, and how that would need to happen.Gareth Southgate (front) will address his players early in next weeks camp to remind them of the protocol (Steven Paston/PA)Were very clear, which I have to say that it was a little less clear to me in Montenegro and of course the incident happened so late in the game.We are very clear across to all of our staff and discuss what needs to happen, what that procedure needs to look like.Southgate will address his players early in next weeks camp to remind them of the protocol, but hopes the attention is on the football."We couldnt be happier with the results in qualifying so far, but these two away games are a different sort of challenge."The boss has been looking ahead to the #ThreeLions' upcoming qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. England (@England) October 4, 2019We think its important to pick that up with the players because we havent done that post Montenegro because we had two home games last time, he said.So, we didnt think it was relevant to them but we think its now a good moment to do that.And I think the conversations weve had with people about this, it would be key that they know that were clear on what needs to happen and they are supporters of that.I think its important that our players have been prepared if it were to happen. Here it is: your #ThreeLions squad for this month's #EURO2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria!https://t.co/uuLf9zGD3g England (@England) October 3, 2019I think itll be in the early part of the week. I think as far away from the game as possible, and its dealt with calmly. I know our guys really want to focus on the football and they want the stories to be about the football. That is their desire, but this is clearly a serious topic, so weve got to make sure that we are giving it the respect it deserves.We all hope that were not discussing this at the end of the game.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Jonathan Veal, PA');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '2dbb93ed-7fcf-4651-814e-6fadfb8c2edd');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk,paservice:sport:world');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'England will have people placed in stadium to monitor for racist abuse in Sofia'});