England footballers Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho have jetted out on holiday together as the duo look to rest and recharge following the racist abuse directed at them during Euro 2020.
The two forwards are set to become team-mates together at Manchester United, after Sancho underwent his medical at Carrington ahead of completing his £73million move from Borussia Dortmund.
They are also close friends, and will now spend their time away after England’s penalties heartbreak against Italy on Sunday – and living the high life in Turks and Caicos, before returning to training in the UK.
They have flown to Providenciales, a picturesque island in the Atlantic Ocean, which is on the UK Government’s green list and will provide the Three Lions stars with the perfect backdrop while they soak up the sun.
It comes as chiefs at the UK Football Policing Unit revealed ‘dozens’ of people are being investigated for racist tweets about England’s stars, also including Bukayo Saka – with four people arrested so far.
The data suggests the number of tweets being investigated by police for racism is a very small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of tweets which were published about the match in total on Sunday night.
Social media giants Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have so far refused to reveal to MailOnline how many posts were reported to them for racism, or how many of those were judged to be in breach of their policies.
However Twitter did say it had removed more than 1,000 posts in 24 hours, and suspended a number of accounts for violating its rules. Facebook said it too had quickly removed abusive comments on its platform and Instagram.
One campaign group identified 42 Instagram comments likening players to monkeys, 17 posts using the ‘N-word’ and 15 telling players to ‘return’ to other countries, despite the fact that all three were born and raised in the UK.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate recorded details of 105 accounts that had posted those comments so it could track them. By 11am this morning, the organisation said that out of the 105 accounts it had reported and tracked, only 17 were no longer on Instagram – because either the company or the user had removed them.
Its chief executive Imran Ahmed told MailOnline: ‘Even the police don’t know exactly where this disgusting racial abuse is coming from, because Big Tech companies are hugely reluctant to share data about their platforms.’
Data from analytics company Crisp, which works with top-flight football clubs including in the Premier League, found England players faced 12,500 posts identified as hate messages on social media during Euro 2020.
The abuse from 10,000 accounts – equating to 3 per cent of all users posting to the players’ accounts during the tournament – was aimed at them through Twitter and Instagram, and includes comments about race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, as well as ‘extreme personal abuse’ and threats of harm, including to family members.
Three of the four arrested have already been publicly identified – plasterer Brad Pretty, 49, from Kent; estate agent Andrew Bone, 37, from Sale, Cheshire; and children’s football coach Nick Scott, 50, from Powick, Worcestershire.
Marcus Rashford (left) and Jadon Sancho (right) have jetted off on a lavish holiday together to the Turks and Caicos islands
Food and drink served on board the private jet which took Rashford and Sancho to Turks and Caicos on holiday
The duo, who are set to become Manchester United team-mates, took a private jet together from Manchester
Sancho is pictured at the villa where the team-mates are staying on the island in the Atlantic Ocean
MailOnline revealed Bone was once married to the ‘Lotto Gran’ who famously tried to claim a £33million jackpot by saying she’d put her winning ticket in the washing machine.
A fourth suspect, a 37-year-old man from Ashton-upon-Mersey in Greater Manchester, was then arrested yesterday, officials said.
Rashford and Sancho were filmed by musician Chibz Artist boarding a private jet, and looked in high spirits while rapping away inside the jaw-droppingly sleek cabin.
The 42,000-mile journey on board a private Bombardier Global 6000 jet took eight hours. They are understood to be staying in an island villa with friends.
Their break comes after days of fall-out following the abuse both players, and fellow shoot-out fall-guy Saka, received online in the immediate aftermath of the Euro 2020 final.
Rashford opened up on the agony of missing his spot-kick, having been brought on in the final minute of extra-time to step up from 12 yards. His effort clipped the outside of the post, however, before Sancho and Bukayo Saka also failed to convert.
All three youngsters suffered the disgusting taunts online, and a mural of Rashford in Greater Manchester was even defaced. Locals have since covered up the graffiti with messages of support for the striker, though.
Today, the Prime Minister said there was ‘still a long way to go’ in tackling racism in Britain and vowed to take the fight to ‘powerful social media platforms’.
Boris Johnson said: ‘I think as a society, what we need to do is understand that we’ve made progress in tackling racism, I would say, in my lifetime – a lot of progress.
‘I think we have to recognise that there is still a long way to go and we’ve got, as a Government, to lead and to use the tools we have at our disposal, the ones I’ve just mentioned, to show we are firm and that there are things we simply won’t tolerate.
‘To take the argument and the fight to those who control these very powerful social media platforms with their immense ability to wound and to undermine.
‘They can stop it and we’re going to make sure that they do.’
The Prime Minister also said the Government would use legislation as a threat to force social media companies to take greater action on racism.
Continuing his answer on racism to Sky News, Boris Johnson said in Coventry: ‘I think the football banning order regime, the changes to that which we’ve announced, will be valuable – you can’t go to the match if you’re guilty of promoting hate and racism online – but we’ve got to go further.
‘We’re going to use the Online Harms Bill to ensure that the big internet companies, the social media platforms that allow race hate to be peddled on their platforms can face fines amounting to 10% of their global revenues.
‘I said to them the other day when I got them all in – Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and Instagram, I can’t remember the other ones, they were the main ones.
‘I said we will not hesitate to go further because they do have the technology to sort this out, they can adjust their algorithms and we will use legislation if we have to, just as we used the threat of legislation to stop the European Super League.’
The England and to-be Manchester United duo took an eight-hour flight together, with musician Chibz Artist
Rashford (left) and Sancho have both spoken out about the racist abuse that saw the striker’s Manchester mural vandalised
In a statement on Twitter on Monday, Rashford, 23, said: ‘I don’t even know how to put into words how I’m feeling at this exact time. I’ve had a difficult season and I probably went into that final with a lack of confidence.
‘I’ve always backed myself for a penalty but something didn’t feel quite right.
‘During the long run-up I was saving myself a bit of time and unfortunately the result was not what I wanted. I felt as though I had let my team-mates down.
‘A penalty was all I’d been asked to contribute for the team. I can score penalties in my sleep so why not that one?
‘It’s been playing over in my head – there’s probably not a word to describe how it feels. Final. Fifty-five years. One penalty. History. All I can say is sorry. I wish it had gone differently.
‘Whilst I continue to say sorry, I want to shout out my team-mates. A brotherhood has been built and that is unbreakable.
England manager Gareth Southgate brought Sancho and Rashford on to take penalties against Italy – but both stars missed
‘Your success is my success. Your failures are mine.’
On the abuse he received, he added: ‘I’ve grown into a sport where I expect to read things written about myself. Whether it be the colour of my skin, where I grew up or, most recently, how I decide to spend my time off the pitch.
‘I can take critique of my performance all day long, my penalty was not good enough. But I will never apologise for who I am and where I came from.
‘I’ve felt no prouder moment than wearing those three lions on my chest and seeing my family cheer me on in a crowd of 10s of thousands.
‘The messages I’ve received today have been positively overwhelming and seeing the response in Withington had me on the verge of tears. The communities that always wrapped their arms around me continue to hold me up.
‘I’m Marcus Rashford, 23-year-old black man from Withington and Wythenshawe, south Manchester. If I have nothing else I have that.
‘For all the kind messages, thank you. I’ll be back stronger. We’ll be back stronger.’
Sancho, meanwhile, issued his own heartfelt message and insisted ‘we need to do better as a society’, as he spoke out for the first time after abuse was sent to he and his ‘brothers’ Rashford and Saka.
Writing on Instagram, he said: ‘I’ve had a couple of days to reflect on Sunday’s final and still feel a mix of emotions. I would like to say sorry to all my team-mates, coaching staff and most of all the fans who I let down.
Racists bombarded Bukayo Saka, Rashford and Sancho with abhorrent abuse on Instagram and other platforms
‘This is by far the worst feeling I’ve felt in my career. It’s hard to even put into words the real feeling, but there were so many positives to take away from this tournament though the defeat will hurt for a long time.
‘My first thought before going into any football match is always, ‘How can I help my team?, how am I going to assist? how am I going to score? how am I going to create chances?’
‘And that’s exactly what I wanted to do with that penalty, help the team. I was ready and confident to take it, these are the moments you dream of as a kid, it is why I play football. These are the pressured situations you want to be under as a footballer.
‘I’ve scored penalties before at club level, I’ve practised them countless times for both club and country so I picked my corner but it just wasn’t meant to be this time.’
It continued: ‘I’m not going pretend that I didn’t see the racial abuse that me and my brothers Marcus and Bukayo received after the game, but sadly it’s nothing new. As a society we need to do better, and hold these people accountable.
‘Hate will never win. To all the young people who have received similar abuse, hold your heads up high and keep chasing the dream.
‘I am proud of this England team and how we have united the whole nation in what has been a difficult 18 months for so many people. Much as we wanted to win the tournament, we will build and learn from this experience going forward.’
Today, a statement from the UK Football Policing Unit read: ‘Following England’s defeat against Italy on Sunday a torrent of racist comments aimed at some of the team’s black players appeared on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
‘A hate crime investigation is under way by the UKFPU, with a dedicated team of investigators working their way through a large number of reports from across the country.
‘So far, dozens of data applications have been submitted to social media companies and four people have been arrested by local police forces.’
Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs’ Council football policing lead, said: ‘The racial abuse aimed at our own players following Sunday night’s game is utterly vile and has quite rightly shocked and appalled people across the country.
‘Our England team have been true role models during the tournament, conducting themselves with professionalism and dignity.
‘I’m disgusted there are individuals out there who think it’s acceptable to direct such abhorrent abuse at them, or at anybody else.
‘The UKFPU investigation is well under way and work continues to identify those responsible. We are working very closely with social media platforms, who are providing data we need to progress enquiries.
‘If we identify that you are behind this crime, we will track you down and you will face the serious consequences of your shameful actions.’