The biggest disappointment when England lost in a European Championships Final.

Wow! What a tournament! The Euros this year have been absolutely fantastic show of footballing talent and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was great to see fans back in stadiums for these games.

Obviously, England making it all the way to the final made it even sweeter this year. The whole country had a real buzz around the tournament, even people who never watch football were talking about the games. I spent many of the games sitting in a local pub and despite local COVID restrictions we were still able to have an enjoyable time. Unfortunately England weren't able to win on this occasion and I felt slightly gutted but that feeling was soon replaced by disappointment.

Bukayo Saka steps up to take the penalty, he strikes it... and Donnarumma makes the save. Italy have won. England lose on penalties...again. Instantly I was gutted for the players, they worked so hard during the tournament and on the night looked the much better team, but that's not how football works. We drank up and left the pub to make the walk home. I had been watching it with my Dad in his local pub so I was walking back to his to collect my car before returning home. We spoke of the games that had gone before and how well we had played and how close we came to being European champions but the whole time the same thought kept coming into my mind - "those players are going to be abused online and in person for the next few weeks." What a horrible thing to think! They have just come closer to winning a tournament than any other England team in the last 55 years and my first thought is "those players are going to have a horrid time in the coming days?" I hoped I was wrong...

Waking up the day after the final I felt hopeful about the future of English football, we played 7 games in the tournament and were unbeaten in 90 minutes, in fact we were unbeaten in 120 minutes in every game, the only thing we lost was a penalty shootout. With so many young players in the squad this tournament was, at the very least, an incredible experience builder for the players. "Roll on the world cup next year" I said to my colleagues at work. Then I looked at my phone and heard the news. The three England players who missed penalties in the shootout were all black or mixed race, and people were using this fact to attack them. There were countless cases of people taking to social media abusing the players, using anonymity as a shield. I was disgusted.

Just over a year ago George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in America when he was pinned to the ground with a knee on his neck until he suffocated. After that the premier league re-introduced the "Say no to racism" campaign with players, staff and officials "taking the knee" before each game. For the majority of the season there haven't been fans in the stadiums, but when they returned this act was boo'd away with some teams deciding not to take the knee after backlash from the fans. Now we are seeing more racially aggravated attacks on people simply because they couldn't kick a ball into a net, beyond a keeper, from 12 yards out. One of the players, Raheem Sterling, scored 3 of England's 11 goals in the tournament (only Harry Kane scored more with 4 goals), some of which were critical for results, and yet missing one penalty brings a barrage of hate. Bukayo Saka is 19 years old playing at his first senior tournament. He had a fantastic impact in the games he played in bringing real bravery to the pitch by dribbling past players and driving the team into attacking areas. And Marcus Rashford has been a warrior for both club and country as well as performing incredibly off the pitch advocating for families living in poverty while no one else was listening. These players are not only playing at the top levels of their sport, they are true testaments to themselves and their country who, as repayment, took to social media to harrass and bully them based on the colour of their skin.

Walking into the pub before the final I felt proud to wear an England shirt, now I feel ashamed.