England agree to abandon game if subjected to racist abuse

The England squad have agreed they will collectively abandon a game if any of them is subjected to repeated racist abuse from the stands.

It comes after Gareth Southgate called a meeting on Monday evening with all the England players, to discuss what action they would take in the face of possible racism in the future.

Southgate explained what the UEFA protocols are, and we've been told the players unanimously agreed to follow those protocols.

UEFA's three-step protocol begins with any player subject to abuse notifying their captain, who would then speak to the referee.

At that point, the referee will initially stop the game and ask for a PA warning to the crowd.

A second incident of racism heard by the referee or reported to him/her will lead to the official taking the teams off the pitch, and a further tannoy warning made to the crowd that the game may be abandoned if the abuse persists.

A decision would then be taken by the referee, in consultation with team officials and the players, whether the game should be abandoned or continued.

Fikayo Tomori confirmed Southgate held a team meeting to discuss what action should be taken if England's players suffer racist abuse.

"It was just about, if it does happen which unfortunately it does sometimes, what we need to do and what the protocol is," said Tomori.

"He just briefed us about what was going to happen. We should be prepared for that because we know that sometimes you can go to countries and stuff like that can happen unfortunately.

"We are just there to play the game and whatever happens in the stands, we'll just let the authorities deal with that."

England players were racially abused when they played a European Qualifier in Montenegro in March, for which the Montenegrin football association were fined €20,000 and ordered to play a game behind closed doors.

The Bulgarian Football Union was fined £35,000 by UEFA for its fans' abuse of England players in 2011.

Monday's fixture in Sofia will be played with a reduced capacity as punishment for racist incidents when Bulgaria played Kosovo and the Czech Republic in June.