LONDON: A fan of football who was harassed by Marcus Rashford, Sancho Jadon and Bukayo Saka after the Euro 2020 final was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison.
Jonathon Best, 52, posted a video of 18 seconds on Facebook where he made “very offensive” harsh words about the players following the loss of British penalty shootout to Italy in the July match at Wembley.
He was sentenced to the court of Willesden Magistrates in London on Tuesday after previously pleading guilty of “sending through a public communication network that was very offensive or indecent or threatening or problems”.
Rashford, Sancho and Saka, all of which are black, accepts torrent abuse online after failing to score their punishment because England failed to win their first trophy since the 1966 World Cup.
The judge, Denis Brennan, said he had considered the sentence suspended but decided to impose custodial others.
“The words you use are antediluvian, vile, and offensive – they attack on the nature of our civilized and corrosive society,” Brennan said in his punishment.
Best, the driver of the forklift from London, was reported to Facebook and police by a colleague and Facebook friend after refusing to remove his position.
“When approached by a Facebook friend asked him to remove very offensive content, the best answer: ‘This is my profile, I can do what I want.’,” Prosecutor Elaine Cousin said.
“There is absolutely no room in the game, or elsewhere, for racism.
I hope this prosecution goes far in educating and blocking people from posting hatred on social media.” In August, British police arrested 11 people over racist social media posts after the Euro 2020 final.
Social media giants including Facebook and Twitter are under pressure from political leaders and sports to impose racist abuse on their platform.
The showpiece in London was also damaged by violence and crowd disorders as a forced ticket fan entering Wembley Stadium and clashed with security staff.
British players suffered racial harassment during the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Hungary in September.
FIFA’s global government agency FIFA then ordered Hungary to play two home matches in the FIFA competition behind the closed door – with one of the suspended Swiss francs – and fined ($ 219,000).