Gareth Southgate lets rip at vile racist abuse of England youngsters by Three Lions ‘fans’

GARETH SOUTHGATE has revealed his fury that young England stars are getting “disgusting” racial abuse from their own fans.

The Three Lions boss, preparing for tonight’s friendly in Holland, claims this country should be more concerned about its own supporters rather than Russian ones at the World Cup.

Anti-racism organisation Kick It Out’s Troy Townsend, dad of Palace star Andros, showed Southgate social media abuse aimed at England’s Under-16s.

And Southgate said: “We should not talk about racism in Russia. We have to get our own house in order.

"We keep pointing the finger at Russia but have to be responsible in our own country.

“Troy showed a picture of our U-16s on social media. The comments about that team were disgusting.

“They are part of our England family. I know most of those young players really closely and I’ve seen them come through.

“So to see them abused in that way is absolutely disgusting.”

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The abuse came after Steven Gerrard posted a team picture of the U-16s in November 2016. Seven of the 11 players were black.

On top of that, considering the current political climate after the Salisbury nerve gas attack, Southgate also accepts England are unlikely to be popular in Russia — and he was not impressed by comments made by Boris Johnson about Vladimir Putin.

Southgate said: “It’s of little interest to me what the Foreign Secretary thinks about it.

“I don’t think we’re going to be the most popular with the way things are going at the moment.”

A year ago, many England fans shamed themselves with their behaviour in Dortmund against Germany.

Southgate said: “I’d strongly urge our fans to behave in the right way here and respect our opponents and the country they are in.”