ITV shares message in support of England team following racist abuse

ITV has shared a message of support after members of the England side suffered racist abuse on social media following their Euro 2020 final loss to Italy.

The broadcaster featured a black and white photo of the team taking the knee across its social media accounts and took out ads in national newspapers on Tuesday.

The image was captioned with the words: “Together we will never lose. ITV Stand with England.”

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were all subjected to abusive posts in the wake of their missed penalties in the decisive shoot-out at Wembley on Sunday.

Figures including David Beckham and Lewis Hamilton, England manager Gareth Southgate, members of government and the Duke of Cambridge united to condemn the abuse.

ITV worked with Uncommon Creative Studio to produce the message, completing the project within 24 hours.

They worked with the company on an anti-racism ad last year in support of dance group Diversity following their Black Lives Matter-inspired performance on ITV show Britain’s Got Talent.

The performance saw a man in a police uniform kneel on dancer Ashley Banjo, echoing the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in the US and sparking more than 24,000 complaints to Ofcom.

ITV’s print ad showed Banjo taking the knee captioned with the words: “We are changed by what we see. Just as we are changed when we are seen. ITV Stand with Diversity.”