England star Tyrone Mings reveals he first heard racial abuse during warm-up and felt he had duty to stand up for those ‘without a voice’
TYRONE MINGS was racially abused by Bulgarian fans in the WARM-UP ahead of his England debut.
The Aston Villa defender will remember his first game in a Three Lions shirt for all the wrong reasons.
But he also showed incredible strength to report the incident to the match officials — and received firm backing from his entire team.
Sadly the racist abuse was not a surprise to the 26-year-old.
He said: “I heard it before I even got to the other side of the pitch for the warm-up.
“We then spoke about it when we came in after the warm-up and, obviously, I don’t need to spell out what happened.
“I think everybody heard the chants but we stood together and made certain decisions.
“Just before half-time we were contemplating coming off because that was the next step after a stadium announcement.
“But there were a couple of minutes to go to half-time, so we thought we’d play on, go into half-time and talk about it.
“Everyone was happy to continue, to see if things improved in the second half and I think it was important we allowed the correct protocol to be followed.
“The team stuck together. We were here to play football, so we didn’t want to be having these conversations but it was important we made a collective decision.
“We represent a lot of people and have to not just make a stance for ourselves.”
Mings insisted he was not hurt personally by the racism.
He said: “It didn’t affect my feelings. I think I’m quite lucky in that way because I don’t feel like it is a personal assault.
“I feel sorry for people who have those views but I also have a duty to represent people that don’t have a voice, so it didn’t hurt or harm my feelings one bit.”
Mings, who also delivered an impressive performance at the back in the 6-0 win, claims the situation improved after the break.
He said: “I didn’t hear anything in the second half. I think fans were removed and if that was the case then the protocol worked.”
Despite the disgraceful scenes, we should not forget this was a fine achievement for a player who was a mortgage advisor and pub barman while playing non-league football.
He said: “Personally it was a very proud moment, a very professional performance from the team.
“We came into the game on the back of a disappointing result and performance on Friday.
“So the most important thing was to put in a professional performance and be ruthless in our pressing and defending.
“We did that and everyone came through the game unscathed.”
Troy Townsend, Kick It Out’s Head of Development, is furious with Uefa.
He said: “They have to take the strongest possible action and that for me is to kick Bulgaria out of the European qualifiers.
“It’s the only way people will take note of what they are doing to our black players.
“I’m not sure how much that protocol was followed. How much do you want the England manager to talk?
“I appreciate the lads were winning comfortably and they probably wanted to stay on and prove they can get on with it.
“But Uefa have to abandon this game regardless of if England like it or Bulgaria like it. For me, that point was reached tonight.”
Former England striker Ian Wright also slammed Europe’s governing body.
He stormed: “That says everything you need to know about Uefa. They’ve done nothing.
“We’re looking at a stadium where half of it is closed. That’s the extent of what they feel they’ve done to combat racism in this country.
“We’ve seen a set of people there that have no respect, do not care and need to be educated.
“As a black player, we’ve heard it for many years about walking off and it’s something that you do not want to do.
“You want the white players to do that for you so you can go off together because you’re a team.
“When you do that and you can see how powerful it is, it can do something.”
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Wright’s fellow ITV pundit and former Manchester United skipper Roy Keane added: “You feel sick to your stomach. It’s horrible. I feel physically sick listening to that.”
In a statement, Kick It Out added: “We applaud Gareth Southgate, his staff and players for the actions taken in reporting the abhorrent abuse.
“It’s now time for Uefa to step up and show some leadership. For far too long, they have consistently failed to take effective action.
“If Uefa care at all about tackling discrimination — and if the Equal Game campaign means anything — then points deductions and tournament expulsion must follow.”