Gary Neville has criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson after England players were racially abused following Sunday’s Euro 2020 penalty shootout defeat by Italy.
The Three Lions lost the showpiece at Wembley after Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed from the spot.
Since then, the three players have been sent vile abuse online and the Met Police have said they are investigating.
Boris Johnson condemned the abuse on Monday morning and tweeted, “This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media. Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”
However, Neville believes the Prime Minister needs to take some responsibility, insisting ‘it starts at the very top’
"I'm just reading the breaking news, it says the PM condemns racist abuse of England players. Southgate and the players a few weeks ago, five days on the trot, told us they were taking the knee to promote equality and it was against racism," he told Sky News.
"The Prime Minister said it was ok for the population of this country to boo those players who were promoting equality and fighting against racism.
"It starts at the very top. So for me, I wasn't surprised in the slightest this morning when I woke up to those headlines. I expected it the moment that the three players who missed, missed.
"The fact of the matter is, there is an issue within football and within society where we think it's acceptable to criticise players for sporting actions because of the colour of their skin.
"Accepting and validating the players who take the knee, who are promoting equality and inclusion, it comes from the very top. If your parents do something, your children will follow.
"I'm not saying that each individual person who has directed that abuse shouldn't take accountability, they absolutely should, but so should the social media companies.
"It's a well-told story that the social media companies have to come down harder on racial abuse.
"We have to start to isolate these individuals who are attacking the players in a racist manner, isolate them by writing to their employers so that ultimately there is total accountability and something of consequence.
"But there needs to be accountability within the game, with the FA and the other organisations, UEFA and FIFA, so that we see punishments for these incidents that ultimately fit the crime because people abused, it's absolutely ridiculous that in 2021 we are still talking about this."
Meanwhile, a Facebook Company Spokesperson commented: “No one should have to experience racist abuse anywhere, and we don’t want it on Instagram.
"We quickly removed comments and accounts directing abuse at England’s footballers last night and we’ll continue to take action against those that break our rules.
"In addition to our work to remove this content, we encourage all players to turn on Hidden Words, a tool which means no one has to see abuse in their comments or DMs. No one thing will fix this challenge overnight, but we’re committed to keeping our community safe from abuse.”
