Rangers boss Steven Gerrard sends support to England ace Bukayo Saka as FA condemn racist abuse

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has issued his support of England star Bukayo Saka.

Rangers managed Steven Gerrard issued his support to Bakayo Saka. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The Arsenal attacker missed the decisive penalty in the shootout with Italy to decide Euro 2020.

He was one of five players to miss a spot kick from the two nations with Gianluigi Donnarumma diving to his left to push away the effort and give the Italians their first European Championship win since 1968.

Saka was consoled after the incident and has since received horrible racist abuse on social media.

Gerrard posted a message on Instagram backing the 19-year-old, captioning a photo of the player ‘So brave kid’.

A number of current and former players issued their support of the player, while the English FA released a statement in the aftermath of the penalty shootout loss condoning racist abuse.

It read: “The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media. We could not be clearer that anyone behind such behaviour is not welcome in following the team. We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible.

"We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game, but we implore the government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real life consequences. Social media companies need to step up and take accountability and action to ban users from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution and support making their platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse.”