Lioness Jess Carter felt ‘relief’ when black teammate wasn’t only player who missed Euros penalty

Lioness Jess Carter was targeted by vile racist trolls during the Women’s Euros in Switzerland last month, forcing her to hand over her social media accounts to a dedicated team

Lioness Jess Carter has admitted she felt ‘relief’ when some of her white teammates missed a penalty at the Euros – amid fears of more horrific racial abuse. The 27-year-old was forced to come off social media during the tournament last month, after she was plagued by vile racist trolls.

The Football Association (FA) called British police to investigate the messages aimed at her online, but did not disclose which platforms she had been targeted on. Now following their incredible consecutive European Championship win, the England defender has said she feared her fellow black teammate Lauren James would face ‘astronomical’ abuse when she missed a penalty in the quarter-finals.

Jess admitted she even breathed a ‘sign of relief’ when a number of Lionesses who are ‘not black’ went on to also miss their penalty in the dramatic quarter-final shootout against Sweden.

Jess, from Warwick, told ITN: “It’s horrible to say but it’s almost like a sigh of relief when other players that weren’t black missed a penalty, because the racism that would have come with LJ [Lauren James] being the only one that missed would have been astronomical.

“It’s not because we want them to fail – it’s about knowing how it’s going to be for us [black England players] if we miss.” Speaking about the impact the abuse had on her, Jess added: “It makes you feel really small. It makes you feel like you’re not important, that you’re not valuable.

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“It makes you second guess everything that you do – it’s not a nice place to be. It doesn’t make me feel confident going back on to the pitch. My family was so devastated by it as well and so sad.”

The FA, UEFA, Lioness boss Sarina Wiegman and the squad all slammed the abuse Jess faced as abhorrent.

It prompted a move by the furious players to stop taking the knee – a symbolic movement against racism where footballers have knelt on the pitch in the seconds before a match kicks off. It was started by former American Football quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016, but took off among English players following the racially aggravated death of George Floyd in 2020.

Lioness Alex Greenwood said yesterday (Tuesday) that ‘more needs to be done’ to stop racist abuse in football, as she blasted it as ‘unacceptable’. She said: “I can never understand what the girls are going through and that’s so hard, but if I can have a voice as a white player and person and say it’s totally unacceptable for it to happen, then we need to be confident enough to stand up and say that.

Speaking about the relief Jess felt at England’s missed penalties, Alex, 31, from Liverpool said: “The fact that thought goes through your head in that moment is really sad.”

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