I told myself that if Lauren James missed her penalty and England lost, the racists would come from whatever hole they were hiding in to cause hate, and I was not the only one who thought that.
Jess Carter, England's back-to-back Euros winner, fears James would suffer ‘astronomical’ racist abuse if she had been the only England player to miss a penalty in the Euros 2025 quarter-final shootout against Sweden.
This fear is not new. In the 2021 Euros, England players like Marcus Rashford, Saka and Sancho faced racism for missing penalties.
In 2021, James was targeted by online racist abuse and again in 2023 after she was sent off with a red card at the World Cup.
At Euros 2025, Jess Carter was targeted by online racism after the quarter-finals, with the FA working with the police to try to identify those responsible, as META did not do enough to block reports or remove racist comments as per.
James missed England's second penalty in Zurich, but Beth Mead, Alex Greenwood and Grace Clinton - all white - also went on to miss.
Despite those misses, the Lionesses still managed to progress before beating Spain in the final in another penalty shootout.
Carter told ITV News: "It's horrible to say, but it's almost like a sigh of relief when other players that weren't black missed a penalty, because the racism that would have come with LJ [Lauren James] being the only one that missed would have been astronomical.
"It's not because we want them to fail - it's about knowing how it's going to be for us [black England players] if we miss."
Jess Carter went on to speak about the impact the abuse she had received made her feel, she said: "It makes you feel tiny. It makes you feel like you're not important, that you're not valuable.
"It makes you second-guess everything you do - it's not a nice place to be. It doesn't make me feel confident going back onto the pitch. My family was so devastated by it as well and so sad."
The FA chief executive, Mark Bullingham, declared that during the tournament, they had referred the ‘abhorrent’ abuse to the UK police.
As a response to the ongoing racism, she felt the player decided to stop taking the knee before the matches, which was previously used to stand against racism; however, they believed it was not working.
Sarina Wiegman, England manager, said the gesture's impact was ‘not good enough.’
So instead, they stood up to racism, proudly in each other's arms.
The impact of this racism was profound on Carter; she felt ‘scared’ when she was told she had been selected to play the final.
"That's the first time I've ever been scared - too scared to play.
"I think it was a mixture of such a big game, but then on top of that [I was] scared of whatever abuse might come with it, whether it's football-based or whether it was going to be the racial abuse that was going to come with it because I did something wrong."
Add comment
Comments