WE thought former LibDem leader Jo Swinson had topped the charts of denial.
After seeing England lose on penalties, she had suggested some truly bizarre alternatives to a shoot-out – basically anything that would have ensured England won.
READ MORE: Euro 2020: Jo Swinson mocked for ridiculous tweet about England game
Calling for a future change in the rules is one thing … now, some England fans took it a step further. They’re demanding that Gareth Southgate’s men get a fresh chance to defeat the Azzurri.
More than 100,000 supporters have already backed a petition calling for a rematch on Change.org.
READ MORE: Mancini rests Euro 2020 trophy on National's Braveheart front page
Sharon Guilmen launched the campaign petitioning "Euros 2020 managers".
She wrote: “The match on July 11 was not fair at all. After Italy only receiving a yellow card for dragging England players like they were slaves. All the pushes, pulls and kicks and Italy was still allowed to win? Definitely biased. Italy should have been given a red card for their gameplay and the rematch should happen with a non-biased referee. This was not fair at all.”
In a follow-up, she added: “Since I can only post an update every 24 hours, I have made a Tiktok to post as many updates as I can about the petition and its outcome. Please carry on sharing it to as many people as possible. We can get this done. Our boys deserve justice.”
On the one hand, we can’t help but find this hilarious – so many fans of a rival team being this bitter about a loss. And let’s not forget the dodgy penalty kick call that helped them past Denmark…
On the other, “dragging England players like they were slaves” is quite far from thoughtful language given the racist abuse England’s Black players have received in the aftermath of the game.
The petition didn’t impress Italian fans either.
Tommassi Faggi replied: “If you want to talk about fairness, we should talk about the laser [pen] an English fan used to disturb the goalkeeper of Denmark, or when you started spitting on our flag, or even during our national anthem, where you started making noise. I almost forgot when, after losing, your fans started being offensive towards the players who missed the penalty with racist insults.
“If you guys want to talk about fairness, learn respect towards other and your people.”
Diego Lavorato added: “You are ridiculous, and this petition is clear proof of that.
“You arrived in the final without deserving it with a non-existent penalty.
“At the time of the award ceremony, your players took off their medal by showing that they did not understand anything about sports. Neither of respect not only for the opponents, but above all for their public in their nation.
“If this is your mentality, it will be a long time before you win anything. Greetings from Italy, the champion nation of Europe without a doubt.”
Sofia Vacirca dug into the details. She said: “Sorry but this is ridiculous, it was a yellow card and nothing more, ever heard of a tactical foul? Guess not. Even Jorginho was just a yellow, he was literally going for the ball and accidentally caught on Grealish’s leg.
“Also what happened with Chiesa, he was forced to leave because he got injured yet the guy got nothing? Ok. I mean you really can’t say anything after what England pulled against Denmark. You really can’t, because if any match needs a rematch it’s that one. Just accept defeat and move on.”
If only every England fan had the class of the players they support.
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