Racism in football makes me want to shun the game and encourage rugby instead – Hayley Matthews

I’m sure many of you were quite taken aback by the racist chants and gestures during the Bulgaria vs England match, and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that it really saddens me to see such overt racism happening and on such a public platform.

Match referee Ivan Bebek (left) speaks to England manager Gareth Southgate and Tyrone Mings about racist chanting from Bulgaria fans (Picture: Nick Potts/PA Wire)

I’m no football expert, however, I am pretty clued up on how to be a decent person and for me decent people don’t condone racism.

It’s another reason to make me want to shun football and encourage rugby in our family instead.

I appreciate there is abusive language in many sports, but for me it just feels like it is always football fans that take it too far.

I do appreciate it is a very small minority who will be guilty of shouting racist abuse at a football match, but for a game to be stopped twice is a very sad state of affairs. I’m glad the England team didn’t walk off so that the game had to be abandoned.

We must not tolerate this and neither should it stop people from living their best life and enjoying their best moments.

I am disappointed in the rest of the crowd who were next to those shouting racist abuse, because there must have been many who felt incredibly awkward at the chants and I’d be surprised if there weren’t many who wanted to speak up.

However, when you’re in a crowd of thugs, I’m sure it can be intimidating.

Nevertheless, there is not and will never be a place for racism and the more people speak up against it, the more we can move forward to a more open-minded society where the majority of people realise that we are all the same.