Tyrone Mings has revealed that he first heard racist chanting during the warm-up ahead of England’s match in Bulgaria on Monday evening.
England thrashed Bulgaria 6-0 but their excellent performance was overshadowed by racist abuse and monkey chants.
Uefa’s anti-racism protocol took place in the 28th minute of the match, with a stadium announcement condemning racist abuse. The match was then paused for a second time before half-time.
And Mings, who was making his England debut, has said that he first heard the offensive chanting before the match had even kicked-off.
“I heard it before I even got to the other side of the pitch for the warm up,” Mings said.
“We then spoke about it when we came in after the warm up and, obviously, I don’t need to spell it out. I think everybody heard the chants, but we stood together and we made certain decisions.”
However, Mings felt the UEFA protocol measures – with the game being stopped twice, announcements made over the public address system and some offenders removed – helped reduce, if not eliminate, the problems.
“I think it was effective. I don’t know whether certain members of the crowd were removed after the announcement went out,” he added.
“The correct steps of the protocol definitely helped and we made a decision at half-time to come out and play the game, which we thought was the right decision.
“Everyone was consulted – management, staff and players – and we all made a decision we were happy to go back out and play the game.
“If anything had happened we would have taken appropriate action.”
