Darlington mural supports England players after racial abuse

Marcus Rashford, Jaden Sancho and Bukayo Saka all failed from the spot on Sunday night as England went down on penalties.

The trio's social media pages were quickly flooded with racist comments, leading the FA to release a statement condemning the “disgusting behaviour”.

But an outpouring of support for the footballers from fans since Sunday night has united communities around the country. 

Darlington campaigner Shaun Campbell has paid his own tribute to the players - and hundreds of people have already visited the new mural. 

Speaking to the Northern Echo on Wednesday morning, he said: "Love will always conquer hate.

"The overwhelming message from everything that's come out of this is that the vast majority of people have absolutely lambasted anybody whose put up any racist abuse. 

"To see the response we got from putting those three numbers up on the wall is amazing. It puts your faith back into humanity and makes you realise there's a lot more good than bad out there"

The numbers 17, 25 and 11 have been poignantly painted onto a white wall as a sign of support for Sancho, Saka and Rashford respectively. 

"We wanted to have the numbers up there instead of the images," said Shaun.

"The point is the numbers speak for themselves. These are the numbers that people recognise from that night. 

"It isn't about colour and it shouldn't be about whether your black or white."

Thousands visited a Marcus Rashford mural in Withington, Manchester, on Tuesday to show their support after it had previously been defaced overnight. 

And Shaun hopes his latest mural will carry a similar message. 

"Nationally, the overwhelming show of support for these boys' incredible courage has been great," he said. 

"Nobody can understand the pressure of what it is to walk up to that football to take a penalty when there are millions of people watching and listening and across the world. 

"That is pressure that people like us will never understand.

"How on earth could we have an opinion on what they did is good or bad in that situation? You can't.

"The magnitude of that moment for these young men must be overwhelming. It doesn't matter how young, rich or famous you are. "

A petition calling for the FA and Government to work together to ban “all those who have carried out racist abuse, online or offline, from all football matches in England for life” has received more than one million signatures. 

Shaun hopes the show of support will help influence the country's education system and culture towards black lives. 

He said: "We need to call these things out. The awareness is getting through I have no doubt but it has much more impact when something disgraceful happens like following the events of Sunday. 

"We shouldn't have to wait for that kind of thing to happen to express our views.

"It's time for people to challenge those negative perceptions. It's the underbelly of hate that now and again rears its head. 

Shaun Campbell with the mural of Arthur Wharton, who played for Darlington FC and became the world's first black professional footballer. Picture: PETER BARRON

Located on Drury Street in Darlington, Campbell unveiled the first mural - a tribute to Arthur Whatrton - in October last year. 

The mural is linked to the Arthur Wharton Foundation, based in Widdowfield Street, which celebrates the life and achievements of Mr Wharton, the world’s first black professional footballer, who played for Darlington in the 1880s.

Shaun's campaign aims to use the spirit of Arthur to bring the community together in a way that teaches the people of Darlington about black history, diversity, and equality. 

Shaun explained: "The beginning of the black presence in sport began with Arthur Wharton in Darlington. His statue looks over the players at St George's Park, but now he needs to look over these three. 

"We're seeing the brave people who stood up for this nation being abused by the very people they represent.

"For this nation they said 'I will take that penalty'. They took on that responsibility to make us all happy, to jump up and down and to celebrate.

"Whatever they did they tried to win."

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