Swindon Town Football Club fans have offered their support to the three England players that received racist abuse after the Euro 2020 final and have backed calls for stricter punishments against racism in the game.

The final, between England and Italy, came down to a tense penalty shootout and three England players, Bacary Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, missed their spot kicks.

After the game they were subjected to racial abuse across several social media sites, which included racial slurs and negative use of monkey emojis.

This has led to calls for football fans who commit acts of racism to be banned from football matches in the UK, with a petition calling for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Secretary of State Oliver Dowden and the FA to make this law receiving over 1 million signatures.

Swindon Advertiser: Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were subjected to racist abuse after their penalty misses for England

We asked Swindon fans what their thoughts were regarding the petition and whether they believe punishments for racism in football, particularly from fans, should be stricter. This is what they said,

Joe Hillard, 26, from Old Town said, “The petition is great. Those who racially abuse anyone should be punished regardless if in-person, or on social media. This is the reason we take the knee, to show that racism is still an issue in the UK and that it’s unacceptable as Black lives matter.”

Joe also directly addressed the racism that the three players had received,

“The racism they’ve received is inexcusable and unfortunately social media companies do not do enough on their platforms to stop hate. Rashford in particular has done more good for the country tan the politicians in Westminster and should be celebrated, not abused.”

Debbie Hopes, 45, who is from Stroud but a devout Swindon Town fan, felt the petition wasn’t strong enough, “Personally, I don’t think it should be limited to English football. I think this should be a worldwide effort to stop racism!

“It’s not just in this county, as we all know. I think they should be banned from all sporting events and all social media; this would be a massive deterrent.”

We received many more responses from Swindon Town fans, with the consensus being that Robins supporters are unanimously in favour of racism being stamped out of football with lifetime bans.

Chris Leavey, 37, from Toothill, has perhaps summed up the general sentiment of his fellow supporters with his comment, “There is no place for racism in football. The only colour that matters in football is the colour of your shirt NOT your skin.”